Initial D: The Five Fire Flame Stage
by GTSilverShadow
Summary: A story that details the return of Kogashiwa Kai and the forming of his own team Five Fire Flame, and how they'll wrangle an exWRC driver into their problems. COMPLETED
1. Bad Beginings

_Okay, first of I would like to say: why Kai? Well really, when you look at Initial D Kai has to be the character that gets the least camera time and yet is probably one of the guys who deserves much more. He strikes me as a Tochigi version of Fujiwara, only with much more personality. After his battle with Takumi what then? I mean we see what happens to the Night Kids and Impact Blue, Emperor, even Wataru turns up again with his new team the North-West Saitama All Stars but Kai never appears again. So this is my little way of telling the story of Kogashiwa Kai, the one and only lunatic on Irohazaka._

_Secondly, there are references to BoomChish's great work with Follow the Leader. I take no credit for the Evo Prime team and all accolades should be sent her way for that, any thoughts that other characters may have for the Evo Prime members, should they invariably show up, that I take credit for :-). Anyway, enjoy the show and please, read and review._

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**Bad Beginnings.**

_Little things. You can't argue with the little things, it's the little things that make up life. Quoting the Simpsons not withstanding, the author had no idea how insightful that quote actually was. A little thing... a moment in time, which could have happened many different ways, but because of little things, your life slips away. 7km/h to fast into a hairpin... a little thing. Unplanned brake wear...a little thing. Oil on the course... another little thing. Because of these little things I lost everything. Gone is the Rally Toyota contract. Gone the respect of my grandfather. Gone the heart of my first love. Gone the life of my co-driver..._

_Gone the life of my best friend._

_My name is Nicolas. Nicolas Sainz and I was a man destined for the World Rally Championship. So I thought. I have run far and fast to escape the memory of my life and as far as I go, as fast as I flee, I bear it with me still. One day I will be fast enough to outrun my woes..._

_That is my hope._

_But what I hope and what I know are two different things entirely._

"Welcome to the course students, I am your lecturer for the semester, Satou-san. This course will focus on the teenage student and the great social and psychological changes that occur during puberty, which you will have to deal with as teachers..." Ohna Takuya tapped his pen against his notebook, waiting in bored misery for either something important to jot down, or a break to have a cigarette. Most of the class were in the same position as him, as motley a crew as they were. French exchange students rubbed elbows with upper-class Japanese, born and bred in Nikko and even young, overconfident and 'charismatic' street racers like him. Surely the French students were thinking about how their weekend would pan out, and what they would do to entertain themselves, just as much as Takuya planned the logistics of accompanying his friend Nobutachi Dysuke to the battle against Emperor's Satake. Dysuke had challenged the Emperor driver after hearing the way the Emperor team looked down on FR drifters. Satake had goaded Dysuke at a local nightclub after discovering the young drifter drove a Toyota Altezza, turbocharged with a transplanted 3SGTE and pushed to 300 horsepower. Dysuke was good, certainly considered among the best of the street level drifters in Nikko, but his opponent drove a Lancer Evolution IV, a car designed solely for the WRC, and he trained on Irohazaka mountain as often as Dysuke trained on the track. Even with 300 horsepower his set-up was so low and stiff, set for drift, that he'd hop over bumps in the road and lose traction. The LanEvo on the other hand would have no such problems, and it could step on the gas more in corners with 4WD, and the driver knew the course better, and...

"Excuse me. Forgive my intrusion, I'm new to the University and needed directions to find the lecture theatre." As Satou-san replied with something in the tough-but-fair vein, Takuya eyed up the new student who had interrupted his meditation of a hopeless situation. He was foreign, defiantly foreign, but he didn't look American, he was tanned, with long dark hair in a ponytail and a stylish goatee with thin sideburns and moustache. Maybe European, but beyond his obvious foreign appearance something stood out on the new comer. It wasn't his cargos or his shirt, or the military tags he wore around his neck, it was his shoes. Though at distance Takuya couldn't make out the brand, it was obvious by their appearance that they were the type of shoes used by race drivers, thin-soled to allow maximum sensitivity on the pedals. With the exorbitant cost of racing sneakers, Takuya doubted that the gaijin had bought them as a fashion statement, perhaps he was a racer or drifter himself? As the lecture continued without his consciousness Takuya wondered if, after the battle, he should show the gaijin around, maybe get him running the local passes with him. Takuya was mightily sick of running the touge alone, especially now that all the good passes had home teams on them. The closest run, Irohazaka was a complete nightmare to try at night, as there would always be at least one or two Emperor members floating about, and they never let outsiders run their pass unchallenged. Even Happohagaga, only recently completed, had a home team, another all LanEvo team to boot. Momiji was a hazardous run, even without the local Seven Star Reaf, open gutters and all. And Enna pass was home to T.R.S., a rally school run by a retired pro... who could compete alone against teams like that!? There were still the lesser passes, Asigiri foremost among those, but they were too far to travel to unless you were really desperate, especially with so many good passes closer to Nikko. What Takuya needed was a team of his own. Skilled drivers to push each other to excel and send a message to the home teams, that they weren't kings of their own mountain.

"An all Toyota team..."

Dysuke and Takuya had met on a free track day, owing to the fact that they both drove pretty unique Toyotas, soon exchanged phone numbers and had been good friends in the months that followed. Dysuke had his drift Altezza and Takuya had his EP82 Starlet. Having recently moved to Tochigi from his native prefecture Saitama for University, Takuya lost all of his racing colleagues, though he still had enough street cred to pose a challenge to the locals... just. Takuya was no stranger to driving, he _had_ appeared on the illustrious Best Motoring more than once and had received praise from The Drift King, Keiichi Tsuchiya, himself, for both his driving and his car's tuning. But that didn't mean he actually stood a chance of defeating say, Sodou Kyouichi, the leader of Emperor and most skilled touge racer in Tochigi. Not at the rate he was going anyway, Takuya needed practice and lots of it, maybe he'd convince Dysuke to start coming with him to different mountains and training, maybe even get a few others to go with him. Surely there were more than a few individual drivers in the area that were tired of only catching a lap of the passes here and there in between team practice. Maybe a team wasn't too far fetched an idea. Takuya supposed that even Project D, and Tsuchiya's own team, The Touge Kings, had to have started out somewhere.

"Class is dismissed."

"Huh?"

"Hey dad, can I borrow the car? I want to go into town for a few hours." Kogashiwa Ken mulled his son's proposal over for a few minutes before responding.

"Sure, but be sure to fill it up and check the oil and tire pressure before you get home, or you'll be riding that bike of yours in the rain from now on!" Kogashiwa Ken, the retired rival to Fujiwara Bunta, threw his son the keys and watched him drive away. It was disappointing to say the least that Kai hadn't been able to beat Fujiwara's son, but by all accounts that young kid had god-like skill, nearly as much as his father, despite their large age difference. After that race Kai hadn't shown much interest in racing cars, he gave up on targeting the Emperor team, and pretty much only used the car when he needed some boot space, or to carry a passenger. Which was it today, Ken wondered.

"Hi, Rina, sorry I'm late, I had to wait for dad to get home before I borrowed the car." The young Toyota driver apologised as his new girlfriend clambered into the SW20. He had promised to take her to University to hand in a finished assignment, hopefully he wasn't too late, otherwise Kai would have to drive like a demon to get through the streets of Nikko in time.

"Oh don't think to much of it Kai! You know I'm handing this in early so I can get a longer weekend!" She happily exclaimed. Of the many things that Kai liked about Rina was the fact that she was carefree and easy-going, a pleasant change from his father and most of his friends. There was good cause to enjoy a long weekend too. Kai's father had a business meeting out of town and was carpooling with a associate, so that left Kai the car and the house all to himself. He had promised to show Rina some street racing on the weekend, apparently one of the Emperor team was racing, and despite what Kai thought about the members, they always put on a good show. Not as good a show as him, but still. Who could find the time to race anymore? Not Kai, with his University and his job at the local café and Rina and chores from his father to complete. But still, it would be good to see some action again. Kai wondered briefly if it would be that Iwaki driving, not that he had any reason to envy Iwaki's skill level, he had beaten the Emperor number two with ease nearly two years ago. Perhaps Kai should have paid more attention to the Tochigi scene after all. Oh well, Saturday he'd probably be able to get a few quick runs in before the battle, maybe he'd even get a chance to challenge someone to quick race. It was just an idea, besides, it couldn't hurt his image with Rina. They continued into Uni at a brisk but safe pace, chatting happily until Kai pulled up outside the school of Psychology and Rina waltzed inside to hand in her assignment. Looking through the car park to amuse himself Kai spotted quite a nice looking car in an adjoining bay a decided to wander over and have a look. Impressive! A Toyota Celica GT4, ST185... from Kei Office!? Sure enough, overlaid down the custom yellow painted door, on top of a pillar of performance brands was a small 'tuned by Kei Office' sticker. This car was defiantly built to attack the touge fast. From it's custom black bonnet and carbon wing to the visible aftermarket front mounted intercooler with water-spray kit to the seventeen inch black wheels with 245 Bridgestone Potenzas, everything about the car screamed weapon.

"Excuse me, can I help you?" Kai whipped around with a guilty start to face a tall foreigner. Caught half way between the natural reaction of a street racer to issue a challenge and the polite response of apologising Kai was grateful to see Rina returning from submitting her assessment.

"Um sorry... I was just waiting for my girlfriend, and I kind of noticed your car..." The stranger harrumphed and made for the driver side door.

"Oh, Kai, is this one of your street racing friends!? Wow, what a nice car, I like the colour, it's very pretty!" Rina concluded with a assured nod.

Kai, caught in awkward position, nearly blushed in embarrassment. One of the first rules of complimenting cars was to never call them 'pretty', sexy maybe, but never 'pretty'. The foreigner, far from taking offence, actually chuckled, twirling the keys around his finger in amusement.

"Thank you for the compliment, and I suppose _you_ could call me a racer friend of Kai's." _Even if I only just met the wannabe racer thirty seconds ago!_ Rina clapped her hands in delight.

"Oh! Does that mean you will come to the race Saturday with us!?" She asked, her hopeful tone pitifully irresistible. The gaijin's brow furrowed in confusion.

"I wasn't aware of any races occurring this weekend, what kind of race is it."

Kai starring at his shoes mumbled something along the lines of,

"Downhill battle, Irohazaka, 10 pm."

The response warranted a small derisive snort.

"Oh, amateurs..." he stated with clear distaste as he once again made for the door.

"Amateurs!? The skill level of the Tochigi touge racers is high, nearly equal to Takahashi Ryousuke's Project D! You should see for yourself before you pass judgement on the skill of others!" With that Kai whirled on his heel, took Rina's hand and stomped off gruffly to his SW20. Leaving Nicolas Sainz scratching his chin in half-hearted intrigue. _Takahashi Ryousuke. If half of what the kid said was true, then maybe it would be worth a look, just for interest's sake. _As likely as not the young gaijin wouldn't go, simply apathetic to the notion of planning events in his future.

If he went he went, and if he didn't, he'd probably forget about it by Sunday morning.

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_So what do we think? This chapter is all about introducing the characters that will form the foundation of the story and the foundation perhaps of a new team in Tochigi._

_Kai, like most of the Tochigi racers, never really gets mentioned after his race on Irohazaka. Considering the fact that he nearly beat Takumi, and showed great technique along the way, he intrigued me. There seems to be many similarities to Kai and Takumi, but Kai gives me the impression of being more temperamental and impatient. We've already seen a little taste of his temper, from here on out will it grow or be reigned in by the lovely Satou Rina. If that name seems eerily familiar to some people, you'll just have to wait and see, but it won't be completely what you expect._

_Ohna Takuya people **should **recognise from Best Motoring as he has appeared twice now, once on the 'my car challenge' and once in the Touge 200 competition. Those of you who don't know about Best Motoring, shame on you!_

_Nobutachi Dysuke is the only 'Mary-Sue' of the story. A friend of mine from Uni who actually lives in Nikko and taught me a lot about the Japanese racing scene. He recently traded his old Altezza for a time-attack style RX-8 but, for this story at the very least, I prefer the Altezza... nothing like drifting in leather seats!_

_Nicolas Sainz, the ringer, you could call him. You may have guessed his family heritage by now (if you haven't, again, for shame). It is clear that he has a history in Tochigi and is no stranger to touge or rally. Much of the story will bring up his history, and give him reason to actually get back into racing, but he will surprise you, I'm sure._


	2. Remember Me?

**Remember Me?**

Nobutachi Dysuke and Ohna Takuya waited nervously by their respective cars as the Emperor team set themselves along the Irohazaka pass in observation positions. Satake was sitting arrogantly upon his muscular Evo IV bonnet, while Sodou Kyouichi starred at Takuya's EP82 with a intensity that definitely bordered on recognition.. Even with the added GT Wing, the car was common enough on the roads, but Takuya was certain that Sodou had figured out just who he was...

Which was defiantly a bad thing.

As Sodou turned to his offsider and motioned him to move to the starting position, a call came in over the radios.

"Hold the countdown, a blue SW20 is on it's way to the top, it could interfere."

Kyouichi turned to Satake, preparing to take position on the road and motioned him back. It was probably Kogashiwa's car, and if the kid had finally decided to challenge Emperor again then he wanted as many people around to witness his acceptance and victory as possible. Surely enough, within a few minutes the familiar Toyota pulled up with a hard squeal of tires and out of the tight cabin emerged two people. One was Kogashiwa, the other was a young, and very attractive, girl. Satake ogled her quite obviously, Sodou, though much more subtle in his reaction, had to, _this_ time, and probably never again, approve of his team mates appraisal. The girl was very easy on the eyes, that much was certain.

But then again so was Miyoko of Evo Prime.

Not something Kyouichi wanted to think about.

In the opposition camp both Toyota drivers to had their attention on the new comers, but it was Dysuke who was startled into action.

"Satou Rina!" he exclaimed, cutting through the tension with his outburst. "What are you doing here!? Your aniki _never _lets you go anywhere near street racing!" Turning to the sound of the new, and slightly irritated voice, Rina and Kai saw the young drifter as he was stomping toward them, by the look of it, meaning to take the truant girl by the wrist and spirit her off home. Kai quickly stood between them, but Rina stomped her foot on the ground and pouted.

"You can't stop me Dysuke-kun, I don't care if aniki gets angry with me. All my life, all I've ever heard about is racing, especially on the touge, and if I want to see some racing with my boyfriend then I will!" With that said she immaturely stuck out her tongue and turned her back on the Altezza driver.

"Are you going to continue this conversation all night or are you here to actually comp..." Just as Sodou, in his role as the only present team leader had begun to interject, only to have the radio cut him off as it sprung into life again.

"Another car coming, this one's coming up much faster, I think it's a 180 but I didn't get a close look at it. Whatever it was flew past the corner to quick to get a complete description." In frustration Sodou turned to Dysuke and shoved a thumb in the direction of Satake.

"Are you going to do this? Their position is at the base of the mountain, so we have time to get this battle over and done with before a traffic jam occurs." With a nod Dysuke made for his Altezza and Satake's Evo IV grumbled to life, inching forward beside him. The rules had been explained before, the first person to cross the end of the third bridge would be the winner. Sodou began the countdown from five...

"Four, three, two, one... GO!"

With power and 4WD traction the Lancer Evolution IV easily took the lead from the launch. But the Toyota Altezza wasn't to far behind, it's six-speed gearbox and transplanted turbo engine giving it the power and acceleration to compete with Satake in a straight line. They would have to settle it at the corners. The first corner approached and the methods used by the two drivers were completely contrasting, with devastating effect. Used to time attack on the touge, Satake made good use of his braking, in conjunction with properly timed heel and toe, and allowed his LanEvo to penetrate deep into the initial hairpin, powering out with the unequalled exit of a 4WD. Dysuke was a drifter, his normal goal was not strictly speed, but clean drifting and a good line. Although many drifters did practice on the touge, the majority of the practiced on the far more open environment of the track or gymkhana field. Dysuke was one of those. Not used to, and not confident in, the very tight hairpin, he was unable to enter at his normal speed, and though his drift around the corner was almost perfect, at the exit of the corner the Evo IV had pulled several car lengths. As the corners kept coming, all of them at an incredible downhill angle, the distance only increased between the cars, even though Dysuke had settled down a little and begun entering corners already under oversteer conditions. By the end of the third bridge there was almost twenty seconds dividing the Emperor LanEvo and Dysuke's Altezza. He had not only been beaten, he had been massacred.

Soon enough the talk over the radios filtered back through the stationed Emperor members. It was definitely welcome news, they hadn't had many decent wins lately, what with Iwaki's losing streak. Notably absent from the celebratory discussion was Sodou Kyouichi, who should have at least congratulated Satake for his win. None of the Emperor team knew that the real matter of importance was happening at the peak.

Kogashiwa Kai turned to the young girl on his arm as they watched the retreating taillights of the two battling cars. With a look of contemplation upon her flawless face Rina turned to her boyfriend.

"Kai, watching a battle isn't a fun as I thought it would be." With the disappointed sigh of a male anticipating an irritated or emotional comment from his significant other, Kai began to apologise. How surprised he was then, when Rina continued. "I think it's time for me to get a car, and try it for myself! I've been saving for ages, and I've got my heart set on a really cute one that would be really fun to drive. Then maybe you could teach me how to drive the mountains as fast as you do!" Kai was stunned, caught between laughing at how easy she made it sound, and jumping her bones right then and there...

both valid male responses in Kai's view.

"Well on the weekend why don't we go to a few dealerships and from there we can see about modifying the standard set-up and learning some of the basics..."

The sound of Kai's voice was drowned out by the blaring exhaust note of a charging familiar yellow car. Not the FD of the Akagi RedSuns, rather it was the GT4 he had seen Thursday at University and Rina had invited to the battle. It passed the carpark in which most of the spectators had gathered, a flash of yellow and the high-pitched sucking of a spooling turbo the only clear evidence of it's existence, so fast was it moving. Then Kai heard the strangest thing, when the exhaust sound died, as though the driver were changing gears, or he could have been approaching the first Irohazaka hairpin, it made the same loud, angry, 'bang bang' that Sodou's Evo III did. Kai wasn't the only one to notice either. Emperor heads turned from all over the carpark and Kai swore he could see Sodou narrow his eyes thoughtfully. The Emperor driver passed a few terse words about at his subordinates then made for his Evo, turning it on, and allowing it's engine to warm. Thinking Sodou's actions strange, Kai mimicked them, gently tugging on Rina's wrist and directing her to the SW20. Once inside the cockpit he turned to her with a serious face.

"Rina, I don't want to scare you, but I think there is something interesting going on tonight. I know you want to see what street racing is like, but I don't want you to feel in danger. That black Lancer is, I think, going to wait for the yellow Celica we saw the other day to make another pass and follow him. When he does that, I would like to as well. These two drivers are very good and we will be going fast, do you want me to show you what street racing is, at it's best?" With an excited but cautious smile she nodded the affirmative and Kai turned his car over.

Just as, in both cabins, the temperature reached safe operating heat the clamour of the GT4 could be heard approaching. Quickly the headlights, reflecting on the trees either side of the road became visible and then so did the flash of yellow metal. With a piercing shriek Kai and Kyouichi drag-launched their cars simultaneously, pulling out quickly one in front of the other and chewing into the lead the GT4 had until they were coming into the first corner back to back. From their position at the very rear, Kai and Rina would be able to see the skill level and cornering technique of both drivers. Though they would find that they would not be able to keep up. After but a few corners, the incessant sound of backfiring slowly softened until Kai could barely hear it over the sound of his own engine. He could try to catch up with his 'Special Line Factor', but not with Rina in the car, and not having spent months barely practicing on Irohazaka at all. With a resigned shrug he let his foot off the accelerator and slowed his attack on the downhill to a more demure tempo.

"Well, that could have gone better." Takuya had to laugh, even so soon after having his rear bar absolutely handed to him Dysuke was capable of viewing the situation with humour. Maybe now he'd believe Takuya when he said that...

"Touge isn't like other motorsports, it _does_ requires specialised tuning and skills" Dysuke took the words right out of Takuya's mouth. With a grin Dysuke absently rubbed the front quarter panel of his white Altezza, though he surely had to be smarting at the lose there was something in Dysuke's eyes that was almost imperceptible, but it looked like the young drifter had just learned a great deal of appreciation for touge.

"Well Kyouichi-sempai, remember me?"

For the first time in his life Sodou Kyouichi, closest rival to Takahashi Ryousuke, and the only person in Japan to openly hold a win over Fujiwara Takumi, The Ghost of Akina, was absolutely speechless. Never in his entire life had he thought to see this pain in his backside again. He didn't know whether to let out a frustrated scream that life could throw this complication into an already conflicted time or pull the speaker, only a couple of years younger than Kyouichi himself, into a fierce hug.

You had to know Sodou Kyouichi and Nicolas Sainz to understand their relationship.

"So that's what I will have to be able to do?" came Rina's soft voice almost a minute after Kai had reduced his speed. Knowing it would be better to temper any enthusiasm with common sense, especially with an excitable Rina, Kai forged a half truth.

"Eventually, it will take a long time, I've been driving since I was a kid for my dad, and those other two drivers have probably been practicing longer. That's the price you pay when you want to learn how to drive fast." Also, Kai didn't want to admit that, now, with his skills obviously decreased, he stood no chance against either Sodou or the foreign GT4 driver. That stung his pride more than a little. Especially since it was not too long ago that he had been rivalling Fujiwara Takumi. If it wasn't for the dead leaves on the course...

Well, maybe there was a lesson to be learnt in that. If Sodou and that gaijin were fast, then he would get faster. If Rina wanted to learn, then he would teach her. If Emperor...

"Kai, are you feeling alright? I've been asking the same question for the past minute." Kai shook his head comically to clear the cobwebs before turning to Rina with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, I was just thinking... about... how cute you look in the moonlight on the touge!"

Rina giggled and gently punched Kai in the arm as a thank you before reiterating.

"So can we go up and see Dysuke-kun? He's a friend of my brother's and I just know that you'll like him!" With a sigh Kai performed an E-brake turn at the base of Mt Irohazaka and headed up the one-way uphill road to the peak as Rina detailed the traits of her brother's friend.

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_Well it's all coming together at the moment, it seems like Dysuke and Rina have a little bit of history between them, what will become of it I wonder... _

_Rina wants a car of her own, and wants her poor unsuspecting boyfriend to teach her to race... what kind of car will she buy and how will Kai adapt to teaching his own girlfriend racing techniques? And what about Dysuke and Takuya? Will the loss to Satake of Emperor jog Dysuke into a new motorsports path?_

_So what's the history between Sodou and Sainz you ask? Keep paying attention to this spot and you'll slowly find out._


	3. Rally Reunion

**Rally Reunion.**

'_He didn't know whether to let out a frustrated scream that life could throw this complication into an already conflicted time or pull the speaker, only a couple of years younger than Kyouichi himself, into a fierce hug. _

_You had to know Sodou Kyouichi and Nicolas Sainz to understand their relationship.'_

The later reaction won out and Sodou Kyouichi, graduate of Todou Racing School and leader of the feared and famed Emperor team, grabbed the young gaijin driver in a bearhug.

"God damn it Sainz-kun, how long has it been!? Five years... more than that? What are you doing back in Japan?" Extricating himself from the older mans arms Nicolas Sainz brushed a stray lock of hair behind his ear as he answered Kyouichi.

"Tochigi is my home sempai, even if I had to leave, this is where my heart will always be." A touching sentiment, though Sodou hardly believed it. To anyone with an ear to the ground in the racing world the events that led up to Nicolas Sainz leaving the Toyota Rally Project were well known. Many people, Sodou included, believed that there was much more to the story than had made the rounds, in rally some accidents were out of the driver's control, and even in as tragic an event as the Toyota team experienced, it was unusual for a driver to turn his back on a promising career before it even started, especially considering the lengths Toyota had gone to procure and train Sainz for the task. There was some other reason for the return of the young man, and Sodou intended to find out.

"Dysuke-kun this is Kogashiwa Kai, Kai this is Nobutachi Dysuke." The two young man shook hands before Dysuke introduced Takuya to Rina and her boyfriend. Predictably Kai recognised the name and connected the young man's face and car to his action with Best Motoring and in the Saitama prefecture.

"Ohna Takuya, I didn't know that you'd moved to Tochigi. You made a great reputation for yourself in Saitama, good enough to even impress Tsuchiya-san. Tell me, did you hear any news of a team called Project D in Saitama?"

Ohna smiled to himself as though he was privy to a joke the others weren't.

"Yeah, they came to Saitama. They defeated the North-West Saitama All Stars on Akiyama Wataru's home pass and then a couple of goons on my home pass in their LanEvos. Apparently they had bet on themselves to beat Project D with a local bookie and used an oil patch to spin them out. Still backfired though, Project D won both races, and the guy in his Evo VI spun and crashed himself. Fitting, though it was a shame that those two jerks were the ones to race. I would have loved a shot at that Fujiwara guy in that Trueno." Kai nodded his head in understanding, he knew exactly what it was like to be overlooked simply because the other people on the pass were louder and more obnoxious. If he hadn't of challenged Fujiwara to a battle on Irohazaka then no one would have really heard of him at all in the racing scene. As it was at the moment, only Sodou and his Emperor cronies gave any attention to Kai's blue SW20, and Kai had just been humbled only minutes ago by the Emperor leader himself.

"So were you guys the one's who battled Emperor just before?" Dysuke pantomimed being hit in the heart by a stray bullet before answering the affirmative.

"I tried to get him to practice beforehand and change his suspension settings, but he didn't listen. That's a drifter for you."

Kai and Takuya laughed at that and Dysuke scratched the back of his head in confusion.

"So what's the big difference between touge and drift settings anyway? I mean I know the ride was a bit rough but still, I couldn't even get close to the Evo guy. Was that all down to 4WD or was that the difference in setting coming out?" Both Takuya and Kai began to speak at once, but by increasing the level of his voice, Kai won out quickly.

"Probably a bit of both. You see, on the track and gymkhana field the surface is almost completely flawless. On the touge there are many bumps and potholes and the roads aren't always cambered well, so travel and softness are needed to eat up the undulations. On the other hand cars, especially FR's don't do exceptionally well with a too soft setting. You really have to know just the right positioning." Takuya nodded sagely in agreement with Kai.

"Really it's all about balance, you have to balance a set-up for cornering and rough environments if you want to do well." Takuya added to Kai's advice.

"Finally, you just don't have the experience in racing to be a real challenge to any of the Emperor team. In the area they're it, the best, even the Todou Racing School students can't compete with Sodou, let alone the other teams. Like I was telling Rina earlier, half of learning to drive fast on the touge is experience. There's probably nothing wrong with your technique when it comes to drifting, but you can't necessarily rely on that in a battle, it's very different. If you want to get fast enough for revenge than you will need to practice."

As the group continued talking, discussing everything from Tsuchiya's season in JGTC to the new concept cars currently being developed by Japanese manufacturers, they didn't realise it, but the foundation for a new team would be lain. As the four young enthusiasts parted company, in the mind of Kogashiwa Kai and Ohna Takuya, Five Fire Flame was born.

"So you're still driving your Evo III after all this time sempai. I've been told that the more things change, the more they stay the same, it's probably true in this case." Sodou listened politely to his younger friend, there was a certain melancholy but at the same time almost a mania in the eyes of the gaijin that made Sodou far more patient than he would have been in the past, with Seiji or Nicolas, for that matter. "You're still training with Takahashi Ryousuke on the side I take it?" Sodou's grip on his can of ice tea tightened slightly, but enough to let the perceptive Sainz come to a conclusion. It was invariable that to men as competitive and skilled as Takahashi Ryousuke and Sodou Kyouichi would eventually have had their friendship marred by eventual battle. That was how things went at the top echelon of street racing.

"We parted company, no use driving between Takasaki and Nikko on a regular basis, the fuel bill nearly sent me broke. Besides, we both have our own teams to lead now, I have Emperor and he has both the RedSuns and Project D, a special touring team that conquered the Kanto plain before turning pro..." Sodou was going to continue, mentioning that the 'Project D' FD had performed quite well in the Super Taikyu endurance event, but at the mention of professional driving Sainz's eye's quickly averted from Sodou's own to look at the concrete they were occupying beside a vending machine. Far from inconsiderate himself Sodou quickly steered the conversation toward safer ground. "But my team is the real power in these parts."

"The LanEvos are all yours I take it? You always talked about starting your own team and I'm not surprised to see nothing but Evos in it."

Sodou turned to the younger driver, his facial expressions serious.

"You could join you know, I would make an exception for you..."

Never mind making an exception, with Sainz as part of Emperor, conquering Tochigi would be as simple as stomping out a cigarette on the concrete. If it had been Sainz, instead of Iwaki that came with him to Gunma, no one could have defeated them, not Takahashi Keisuke, not Fujiwara Takumi, not anyone. With a nostalgic smile Nicolas considered the offer before dismissing it with a shake of his head.

"Just like old times Sodou-sempai? Sorry, but for now the answer is no. I've got no interest in racing anymore, and really I don't much see that changing."

To that Sodou Kyouichi had nothing to say.

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_Short chapter I know but really, that was where I wanted to end that chapter. There are references throughout of the past between Sodou and Sainz, they will become more important as the story goes on. For all you Kai fans, don't worry, the next few chapters will be centred much more around him and the creation of Five Fire Flame. Please read and review to let me know how I am going._


	4. Learning Curve

_Well I'm back. Hopefully in the last chapter you gained a little insight into the character of Nicolas Sainz, I'd love more feedback on him as he isn't going to be appearing in this chapter, not in a speaking context anyway, and probably won't be for a while._

_To Eric Shields, obviously to you (I'm assuming), like myself, Initial D is the side interest to real motorsports. I've been into cars (rally to be precise) a long time before I ever even heard of Initial D, as a result much of my writing concerning the cars and technique will be written from a driver's point of view. If anyone doesn't like that, well... tough. You'll thank me when you learn something._

_Oh yeah, Rina isn't Mako's sister, guess again... though her brother is popping up in this chapter, he should put the puzzle to end._

_Oh and as for Sainz and his racing sneakers, it's a bad habit that I picked up over the years from older speedway and rally drivers, so I figured, growing up in a similar but much more advanced environment, Sainz would exhibit the same habit._

_Oh, a little warning about this chapter, the two points of view actually jump back and forward in the week, it's Monday with Kai and Rina and later with Takuya and Dysuke. I've done that for a few reasons but I just thought that I'd warn you before I confused anyone._

_On to the show._

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**Learning Curves.**

It took quick reflexes, squeeze braking and a little luck but Ohna Takuya managed to pull his EP82 Starlet up in time. Dysuke had spun his Altezza out. Again. Takuya gave his horn a quick beep to enquire about the health of his friend, and quickly received a reply before Dysuke's reverse lights aroused themselves. Dysuke quickly had his car in the correct direction again and, with a screech of tires, took off, Takuya struggling to stay in tow. The main problem was that although the suspension setting had been changed at Dysuke's local workshop earlier in the week, he had yet to accustom himself to the difference that this would create in his car. Also, as Takuya made quick and clever use of heel and toe and left-foot braking to eliminate the FF Starlet's understeer, he noted that Dysuke was pushing himself much harder than he did on the track. A dangerous habit. The thought came almost seconds before another spin. Dysuke, frustrated that Takuya was constantly able to close the gap between them in the hairpins had gone in to the entrance and accelerated too hard, causing the front and rear to exchange alignment. This time Takuya had to react faster, but with some fancy steering work and a good pull of the handbrake he had avoided the Altezza altogether and spun to a stop in front of Dysuke rather than behind him. Quickly Takuya, much more experienced at touge, hit his hazards and, with a hand out the window, motioned for Dysuke to pull into the shoulder lane in the galleries. On a popular touge like Enna, you could never know when someone else would flick around the corner and careen into them, particularly in the afternoon. Not a good introduction to the local team. 'Hi, we're new in the area, sorry for totalling your car, mind if we run your home pass?' No, there was no way that was going to fly. The slam of Dysuke's door brought Takuya back to reality and a string of inventive cursing firmly rooted him there. Dysuke was not happy with his progress. Not by a long shot.

Kai had had many pleasant surprises that mourning, two days after the battle, waking to find his girlfriend curled familiarly against his side in a thin silk wrap, having Rina insisting to make him breakfast in bed and then surprisingly when he had finished, having her ask if they could look at a car she had seen for sale.

"Sure, why not. Why don't we get changed and go this mourning?"

Though Rina was surely excited at the thought of seeing 'her' new car, regardless of the fact that see had yet to purchase it, she had to thank him properly. It was the polite thing to do after all. Regardless of how cute Kai was in the mourning with his little bangs of hair wild instead of parted neatly in the centre, it was simply the duty of a thankful guest. Yeah right. Smiling slyly Rina gently gave Kai a peck on one cheek, then the other, then his brow...

"Why don't we go this afternoon instead?"

With a nervous gulp, Kai complied to her advances with characteristic pliability.

"Much later this afternoon."

Guardrails were hardly very comfortable, but street racers had been making them into seats for years and Takuya and Dysuke were hardly bothered to attempt any new trends. They puffed away on their cigarette's in silence, Dysuke wondering when Takuya would scold him for his bad driving and Takuya wondering when Dysuke would tell _him_ what was bothering him. They continued to finish their cigarettes, but the tension finally became to much for Dysuke. In a fluid motion he stood, threw his cigarette to the ground, stomped it out and turning to Takuya threw his arms wide.

"Well?"

Thoroughly confused Takuya stared blankly for a moment.

"Well what?"

"You know what!" Dysuke growled in frustration, "You've been waiting to tell me off about my driving for twenty minutes, how irresponsible I'm being, how I'm only bound to keep making a fool of myself at this pace, how..."

A feral roar of an engine and squealing tires took the words out of Dysuke's mouth. Turning to the sound out of instinct both Takuya and Dysuke were distracted by a headlight and spotlight combination flashing at them, making identifying the car almost impossible for a split second. Then in a blur of yellow and black, what they had quickly recognized to be a Celica, had run wide into the corner before initiating a drift at high speed and steep angle, barely a foot from Takuya's side door. Judging the aggressive reaction and driving of the driver as he passed, Takuya thought that he might be one of Enna's TRS members, a good reason for he and Dysuke to get going while the getting was good. Turning to Dysuke, Takuya nodded at their cars.

"Looks like our time is up, we'll finish this over coffee, I'm buying."

Although in a foul mood Dysuke was hardly going to turn down free coffee to reinforce his nerves after that experience. With a nod he stomped on his cigarette one more time and made for the Altezza. They had barely made it in their cabins when the sound of yet another tuned car drowned out their thoughts. In a flash a white Evo IV had sailed around the corner, although to Dysuke, the drift specialist, the car seemed unsteady in oversteer and it looked like the driver barely recovered at the exit. Now very much sharing Takuya's vibe of getting off that mountain before one of those two suicidal hillclimbers decided to come back down and have another swipe at them, Dysuke was impatient to be gone. By the looks of it the Evo hadn't even _seen_ them, controlling the car and keeping their eyes on the road must have been too great a task for the driver. Not that you can talk, a little voice whispered in the back of Dysuke's head. With a snort he flashed his highbeams at Takuya to let the other driver know he was ready to go.

Rina said right, Kai turned right. Rina prompted left, Kai conformed. They were heading out of the residential centre of Nikko and for the industrial, though to where in particular Kai had no idea. Rina just blurted out left or right only moments before the corner, often forcing Kai to literally flick the car sideways just to get in without a car running into his behind. Thank you, no. Every time he was forced to do it Rina let out a squeal of delight. She was definitely going to be a handful to teach, well more specifically, she was going to be a handful to keep from killing herself. Kai sighed to himself and sunk lower into his seat. The things you do for love. Two seconds later, perhaps fuelled by boredom, Rina pinched Kai on the side and pointed ahead.

"That's it, that's it," she exclaimed.

Following her line of sight Kai was confronted with a plain looked garage with the words 'Ken Works' emblazoned over the doors in bold blue letters. Ken Works? How would Rina have managed to find a car for sale in the Ken Works garage? Then it hit Kai like backfire. Satou Ken! One of the drivers from the battle, Dysuke, was primarily a drifter, and he knew Rina. By the looks of it he knew Rina's brother better, and as a drifter in Nikko, who wouldn't? Satou Ken was a driver and mechanic that was constantly preparing cars for and pushing himself to compete in the national D1 grand prix. Although he had yet to break into the top bracketing he was incredibly skilled and as he was in his mid-twenties he had plenty of time in which to hone his technique to even greater heights. Kai pulled the SW20 up with his customary locking of brakes and almost instantly three heads poked out of the garage. One Kai knew from magazines to be Satou Ken, the other was the same drifter from Saturday night, Dysuke, dressed in a mechanic's overalls and another guy that Kai didn't recognise, but was, by the look of him not a employee. It was obvious they were expected as Ken quickly beckoned Rina over to the garage's heart, where she easily made her way about, dodging stray tools and parts as though it were second nature to her. Over in the corner, mostly out of the way, Kai noticed the Ken Works' D1 Trueno with it's distinct blue and red vinyl graphic down either side. The touge racer in Kai shudder involuntarily even as he reminded himself not to judge pro drivers as though he were their equal or superior. Besides, the vinyl art made the car so distinct that the judges and spectators were bound to notice it, really a clever business move, Kai decided. As Ken pulled Rina aside to talk to her in private, Kai poked about until his eye settled upon Dysuke's Altezza, up on axle stands, with a pair of legs sticking out from underneath it.

"Finally changing the suspension settings huh?" Kai politely inquired.

In a quick slide, Dysuke had re-emerged from his cubby beneath the underbody of the car and was observing Kai somewhat warily.

"No, Ken-san changed them earlier today, I'm just finishing up a general service, I had to put the plugs for the sump and gearbox back in." Well, that made sense. "I'm going out later on in the week to test the new settings. Takuya is taking me to another mountain, Enna I think the name is." Kai's mind quickly turned over. Enna, home to the Todou Racing School, one of the most skilled teams in Tochigi, behind only Emperor. Enna itself was a series of steps, straightaways that led straight into tight hairpins. The course was really suited to the FF and 4WD layout, FR cars had real problems transferring speed from the long straights into the hairpins without creating too much oversteer.

"It's a difficult course for an FR to attack at speed. You should be careful and stay within a fairly safe pace..."

A hand on Kai's shoulder startled him and made him jump. Standing behind him was Satou Ken and Rina, Ken had a strange look as he regarded both Kai and Dysuke.

"You should listen to him Dysuke, you're not used to the touge, and even with the new settings, you'll need time to get used to them."

With a rude sound and a shrug of his shoulders Dysuke skated his creeper back under the Altezza to divert attention from himself. Ken chuckled and, with a slight squeeze steered Kai towards the office.

"Nobu, why don't you take Rina around to look at your car?" With an instant nod the third person who had been there at Kai and Rina's arrival led Rina, happily skipping even in the closed environment, out of the workshop. Once Ken had ushered Kai into the office he offered him a chair before sitting himself.

"Dysuke told me that you took Rina to see a battle at Irohazaka." Gulping, remembering instantly how aggravated Dysuke had been at Rina when they turned up at Irohazaka and what had been said about Ken's complete dislike for Rina being around street racers, Kai nodded. "I've been asking around about you Kogashiwa Kai, I know who your father is and I know that you yourself have quite a good reputation among the Tochigi racers. If it was otherwise I wouldn't have let Rina even look at buying Nobu's car. Rina is stubborn and she is going to continue to sneak out and participate in racing, even against the wishes of my parents, so I'm telling you only once. Look after her. She can go out onto the touge and on to the track with you, _if _you look after her safety. If you don't, every racer in Tochigi is going to be hunting you down, even your father." Ken let the threat hang in the air for a few moments for Kai to fully absorb before he continued. "Well, let's go and see this car that Nobu is so desperate to offload." Leading Kai out the office's front door the pair rounded the corner and found Dysuke looking in the engine bay of a car in which Rina was sitting in the driver's seat, turning the wheel back and forwards with mock seriousness, all the while the car's owner, Nobu, looked on with something between amusement and horror. At that moment though it was the car that had the greatest share of Kai's attention. An Toyota MR-S, the ZW30! Essentially the car was the newer version of his turbo MR2 SW20, although it was smaller, lighter and rather than a midship turbocharged 3SGTE engine, it normally sported a 1ZZ naturally aspirated engine, still in the midship position. Although Kai knew the cars were rather underpowered, he could see why Rina would have liked it. The standard red Toyota paint stood out starkly against the carbon fibre bonnet (which on a midship was actually the boot) and wing combination, and rather than having a solid roof like an SW20, or even the older AW11, the MR-S was a convertible. Quite the girl-racer car, though Kai didn't like the prospects of Rina in that car on the touge. Maybe he should say something to Ken? But Ken was conversing to Nobu and Dysuke, and Kai hardly wanted to interrupt, not after the speech the D1 competitor had just given him. Instead he approached Rina as she mock steered and shifted through the gears.

"So, what do you think?" she wheedled when Kai got to her side.

Thinking quickly on his feet, so as not to disappoint Rina, or insult Nobu as the owner, Kai responded.

"It's nice, but are you sure that it's the kind of car that you can drive on the track or on the mountains?" With a triumphant grin she pulled the bonnet release latch. As Kai lifted the bonnet and held it in place he noticed two things. The first, the word Tom's imprinted on the engine bay and the second was the engine's badgeing: TRD 2ZZ VVTi. An engine conversion!?

What had he just gotten himself into.

"Two coffees please." With the waitress rushing to fill their order Takuya, remembering Dysuke's bitter words, offered his partner a cigarette, which he accepted, before lighting his own. Studying his friend for a little while Takuya finally found the courage to pipe up.

"So are you going to tell me what is bothering you? I'm not worried about your driving, you can do better in a heartbeat. It's what's instigating the driving that bothers me." Dysuke tapped his finger on the table, hoping the coffee would come and distract Takuya, but when he had no such luck, he figured it would be better just to tell Takuya and save the frequent badgering he would earn otherwise. No way around it really...

"Kogashiwa. He's the problem." Takuya's eyebrows raised involuntarily, it wasn't in Dysuke's nature to dislike someone from an initial meeting. In fact the Altezza driver could be accused of being too easy to get along with before he could be accused of being thorny. "He just doesn't get it, Rina-chan's family have kept her away from racing for a reason. She's intelligent, diligent and capable of becoming a great psychiatrist. And then, against the will of her parents, Ken-san puts himself out on a limb for him and if Kai isn't as great as he makes himself out to be, what then? Do you think Ken-san's family will take kindly to what he allowed Kogashiwa to do? And Rina, all the potential she has, gone, how can that be a good thing!?" Bustling back with a tray on her hip, the waitress put on cup of steaming coffee in front of both racers, allowing Takuya time to quickly formulate a response. There were two ways this could be handled, and they had two very different endings. Personally Takuya had nothing against Kai, he seemed a little forward, maybe even pushy, but really, so what. Everyone had small foibles that marred and enhanced their personality. In addition, this unexpected turn could be used to Takuya's advantage. Since the battle with Emperor Dysuke had changed his car's settings, ordered a Bride bucket seat and harness from Ken Works and even been the instigator in coming out to mountains (okay, a single mountain but still), all the things you would expect from someone looking to break into the touge scene. Still, two people alone were not enough to turn heads in the mountains, you needed a team. If Dysuke could be persuaded to spend more time around Rina, who had already made her interest in driving on the touge obvious...

"So why not look after her yourself? You're right, Kogashiwa Kai has a lot of responsibility in protecting Rina-chan, so why not be around yourself? I'm sure she wouldn't mind the company, and having more people around could make things safer for all of us." Seeing the light bulb go off in Dysuke's head, Takuya couldn't resist another dig. "As for potential, wouldn't the same go for a young man, studying to become a lawyer?" Dysuke flicked a sugar packet at his friend's face in response. He could never let on that Nobutachi Dysuke was hardly the grease monkey he made himself out to be. Despite the casual job at Ken Works, Dysuke's real calling was law. Something he tried desperately to hide from his fellow drifters and racers.

Takuya had to smile, with Dysuke now determined to keep Satou Rina safe, they were one step closer to a team of their own.

Five Fire Flame.

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_Okay, here we are, another chapter down in writing. A little longer than usual, but it makes up for the shorter one it proceeds. Obviously there is some tension brewing between Kai and Dysuke, I wonder if Dysuke is telling Takuya the whole story or not. Oh well, we'll soon see._

_We finally know the identity of Rina, that is why her family name is familiar. Satou Ken is actually a real D1 competitor, considering the name so similar (well, okay, identical) to Mako, it was irresistible to bring him and his new sister into the story. And now she has a ZW30, yes that is a little corny, two lovers having the same make of car, but really the ZW30 is a car (like the earlier GT4, which I happen to own ;-)) that got the shabby deal in Initial D. You cannot tell me that there can be teams full of s13's and 180's but no ZW's, what's up with that? Okay, I could answer that s13's are incredibly cheap and common in Japan, but EG6's, DC2's, LanEvos, SW20's, EK9's, even AP1's and R34's (probably among the most expensive cars you could use on the touge) all make appearances, but not the car model that just recently humbled Tsuchiya's own Touge Monster 86. That all changes here!_

_Who oh who could possibly have been in that white Evo I wonder? It wouldn't have been Seiji and Miyoko of Evo Prime would it? So intent on practicing the Enna uphill that they missed our two heroes? Oh well. Anyways, your reviews are always appreciated, I hope it doesn't come to having to ransom chapters for reviews (because I'll do it! Lol). Be back with a new chapter soon. _


	5. Opening Gambit

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Well........._

_Kyle's mum's a bit..._

_Wait, wrong meeting, sorry. Okay it's been a while since we heard from our budding touge racers and I won't disappoint with the chapter. (Not a guarantee). Anyway, this chapter is actually going to be a departure from the norm in Initial D, it will have car activities, but not on the mountains. One thing Initial D doesn't highlight is the fact that touge guys and girls quite often participate in other events on the track._

_Look out for some familiar faces today, there will be a few of them, they're done some growing and they're new and improved._

_Anywho, on to the show!_

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**The Opening Gambit.**

It had been nearly two months since that fateful discission Takuya had made to goad his best friend Dysuke into socialising with Kogashiwa Kai and really, if he had been able to go back in time, he wouldn't have even thought to do it. The problems between the two became apparent as soon as they began training together. It annoyed Dysuke that, out of the males in the team, he was always setting the worst times. Kai on the other hand was setting the best, with Takuya himself only a second or less slower. However, if Dysuke was aggravated that Kai was faster, Kai was just as frustrated at Rina's love of Dysuke's outrageous drift-style. The first practice session Rina had caught a look at Dysuke's Altezza already counter steering at the apex of a corner as his tail sailed diagonally with supreme control. After that she had insisted on learning to drift, despite Kai's best efforts to convince her that a midship car was probably one of the worst cars to attempt the style in. Dysuke had quickly stepped in and offered to teach Rina the basics in an industrial estate, where there would be no danger of colliding into a mountain face if she fumbled. That left Kai and Takuya to spend most of their time on either Enna or Happohagga, keeping clear of the local teams whenever possible. In that time Kai had asked Takuya a lot about Dysuke, his upbringing, his relationships, everything that he could possibly think of. Doing that, and in the process slowly revealing more about himself, two things became clear to Takuya, firstly, he liked Kogashiwa Kai and secondly, Kai and Dysuke were vying for Rina's attention, and both of them thought that the other had it.

Things had gotten easier after the first four or five weeks. Dysuke had called and told Takuya that Rina had gotten the basics down fine, and that they were both ready to start on the mountains again. For the occasion Kai had suggested Asigiri, but Dysuke had startled both Kai and Takuya by saying he knew a place. The place turned out to be Momiji, home of Seven Star Reaf. They ran it Friday night, when the presence of the local team was minimal, just a kid with a white s13 and couple resting on the bonnet of a red Mazda Roadster, parked in a car park that set the starting line for both up and downhill runs. Previewing the course, Kai sat in the cabin of his car, sweating bullets. He'd only been to Momiji once or twice, and never to race in his dad's car, in all honesty, he was surprised that there was even a home team here. Deep gutters ran either side of the road, easily deep enough to lose your wheel down and spell instant disaster for a car at speed. It would take concentration to take this course, even for Kai. What would Rina do, considering her inexperience? They slowed to a stop in one of the few safe wider areas, hazard lights winking in unison, exiting their cars to quickly discuss the course and whether or not it would be safe enough to run tonight. Rina exited her ZW30, now sporting a convertible rollcage and removable hardtop in black but was neither overly excited or worried. Takuya didn't seem to be too worried either, but Kai had learned a lot of respect for the Saitama native. He did boast more than a little, but the scary thing was, he could back up every word and more. In the month that they had been training solely together, Takuya had gotten even closer to Kai's times, until now, any given day, either of them could be faster than the other. The only unsettling look in the group was Dysuke, there wasn't a definite smug look on his face, but there was the shadow of one. Like he knew something that no one else did.

Momiji had been a proving ground for Dysuke and Rina, the pair had shown the incredible leaps that their skill had taken in their time away. Not only had they been able to run the tight course at speed, but Dysuke had improved his time slip to second; behind Takuya. Kai had actually come in only just ahead of Rina, something that shocked everyone. Kai had gone beyond cautious when running on Momiji, refusing even to push his tires towards their limit. On the other hand Dysuke had shown that he had accustomed himself quite nicely to his new settings and was getting more confident in tighter spaces every day. Even Rina had shown up the second-generation racer, for although she set the slowest time, she not only bettered her previous paces greatly, she had done so whilst drifting, very impressive considering the disadvantages to using it compared to grip. Takuya had sat back and watched, seemingly impassive, but knew that there was something to the marked improvement in the skill of the two drifting members of his, as yet, unnamed team. It would be another week before he had his confirmation.

Nikko circuit is one of the most popular venues for the Japanese art of drifting, regularly holding drift events with many drift clubs, touge teams and even D1 competitors regularly attending competitions, if only to obtain another trophy for their cabinet. These events, held once a month, actually were rather lucrative for the winning competitors, with many workshops and big brands contributing prizes for the podium finishers. Such an event was currently being held, despite the overcast weather and reports of heavy rain, actually, it was being held around Kogashiwa Kai. It had been Rina's brother that had encouraged Dysuke and Rina to attend, and, involve their friends Kai and Takuya. It would be something special in this instance, because the crew from Drift Tengoku would be attending and filming the meet and the first placed contestant would be invited to attend eliminations for D1. This prize had prompted an incredible turn out on the day. As Kai watched from the pits, a handsome space that Rina's older brother Ken had set aside to work on Rina's ZW30 and Dysuke's Altezza and change the tires that they would go through quite regularly during the day, he spotted members of the Seven Star Reaf and Asigiri Kamikaze Lunatic teams, several flamboyant drift teams and even caught a glimpse of professional driver Taniguchi Nobuteru talking animatedly to a long-haired gaijin. Kai's attention would soon be taken away from the pits by an excited girlfriend. Looking very much the part, with a newly stitched Ken Works racing suit on her petite frame and a brightly finished helmet under one arm, Satou Rina slung the remaining arm around Kai's neck and gave him a lively kiss.

"So, are you going to be cheering for me from the pits?" She asked when they had both regained their composure. Wrapping both arms around Rina's slender waistline and pulling her close for an Eskimo kiss Kai replied.

"Of course I will. Who else would I cheer for?"

"I would imagine that you _should_ be cheering on _all_ your teammates."

Trust Dysuke to spoil the moment. Dressed in a racers suit to match Rina's and off sided by the ever present 'sinister mind' of the budding team, Takuya, Dysuke stood confident, with that haunting, confident, smile he had adopted since the practice at Momiji. If the mountains were the element of Kai and Takuya, the drift tracks were Dysuke's, and he was making it well known. Noting the tension between Kai and Dysuke, and quick as always to defuse it, Takuya stepped forward.

"They wanted a team name to enter Dysuke and Rina-chan..."

Kai leaned forward in interest, waiting for Takuya to continue.

"it's just something I made up on the spur of the moment..."

A lie, but the other three drivers leaned forward, prompting Kai to continue.

"so we're now called Five Fire Flame."

Takuya waited for the news to sink in...

"Five... Fire... Flame." Rina tried it on her tongue. Kai and Dysuke settled for amused snickers. Five Fire Flame, it just sounded so... well, absurd. But with little time to argue it, and the knowledge that they probably couldn't think of anything better themselves, the new Five Fire Flame members silently agreed to let the name stick... for now at least. With the name settled, Dysuke clapped Rina gently on the shoulder and nodded towards their cars. It was time for them to move into the pit lane. Judged eliminations were about start.

Something quickly drew the attention of all the assembled drivers, announcers and general hangers on, and this time it wasn't the antics of Keiichi Tsuchiya or his fellow judges. It was the whine of a rotary engine. With a flash of red the first competitor, a series 8 RX7, most commonly called the FD, spearheaded it's way onto the track, and although it was quickly followed by other competitors, the FD was the centre of attention. Nakamura Kenta, active leader and number one driver of the Akagi RedSuns, was used to being the centre of attention. He sent his FD perfectly into every corner, exited with speed unmatched by those who followed him and generally did his best to make every female spectator swoon. It must have been something he picked up from his mentor, Takahashi Keisuke.

Kai and Takuya thumped their fists in the air as the calls for the final sixteen were announced. Both Dysuke and Rina had made it. Of the other touge racers Tooru from Seven Star Reaf, Yoshi, leader of Kamikaze Lunatic and of course Kenta of the RedSuns had made the cut to compete in the quarter-finals. From this point on the top sixteen would battle each other until only two remained, and one took the coveted first position, and the right to challenge the D1 competition. In the first round Rina had the misfortune to draw the RedSun's leader, who had set the standard for the others that day. Better news for Five Fire Flame was given when Dysuke drew a drifter that had been, apparently, struggling with failed power steering all day. It wouldn't have been so much of a problem in a lightweight 86, which actually preceded power-steering, or a Silvia, but the competitor drove a heavy four-door Toyota Chaser and controlling the heavy beast was undoubtedly going to be too much against a driver as polished as Nobutachi Dysuke.

As predicted the rain, common in the mountainous regions of Japan in this season, crashed the party, but failed to dampen either the spirit of the finalists or the lively announcing of Tsuchiya, Orido and Taniguchi. What it did do however was separate who enjoyed drifting and who lived drifting. One by one they fell. Rina, predictably, in the first round, before the rain had even begun, but put up a good fight. She finished as the highest placed female and midship car in the tournament, and received a special encouragement award for her effort. Kai was there, along with Takuya, and between them they managed to hoist the young woman onto their shoulders and walk a victory lap through the parked cars, Tsuchiya's voice, booming over the speakers, cheering them on. In the rain, Nakamura Kenta and Nobutachi Dysuke had quickly asserted their dominance, and the skill of their support teams. In both the Ken Works' and RedSuns' pits, mechanics were kept busy checking engines, oil levels and tires, so that the cars would be fresh for the final battle. Showing his skill Dysuke sauntered through his opponents, finishing off Yoshi from the Asigiri team in the quarter-finals and one of his old drifting associates in the semi-finals. With rain still coming in strong, and standing pools of water now making many corners treacherous at best, both Dysuke and the RedSuns' ace, who had dominated his opponents more and more as the rain had gotten steadier, would need to be at the top of their game in this difficult two-lap drift battle.

Unlike an actual race, the rules of a drift battle were a little subjective. Rather than the victory going to the fastest competitor, it would be the competitor who showed the best and most controlled drift that would take the prize. However there was an exception, if the chaser, whose main role was to put pressure on the driver in front could overtake cleanly, then he would be awarded the victory. When two opponents were of such equal skill that the judges would be hard pressed to tell them apart they would often push from behind to overtake, making for incredibly exciting viewing. With Five Fire Flame assembled Dysuke pushed his helmet over his head, gave the thumbs up to Satou Ken and climbed into the mismatched leather interior and Bride Brix racing seat and buckled himself in, ready for the battle. Defying Dysuke's confidence and defying the pouring rain, Nakamura Kenta stood, his expensive silk shirt and black slacks smeared with wet streaks and his black leather of his shoes probably ruined, but if he cared it was unperceivable on his face. Ignoring the looks of the people in the galleries and the other, defeated, drivers he simply shrugged his shoulders, raked his hand through his died brown hair in a practiced, too practiced, manner. To Takuya it looked as though the young driver had spent hours in front of a mirror practicing, but he was male, and the move certainly left a few of the women on the course.

The young ones.

The young and impressionable ones.

Gaining some last minute advice from an older RedSuns representative he finally belted himself into his FD and signalled that he was ready. The camera crews and team members quickly cleared the area as the 13B and 3SGTE barbled into life to the delight of the entire attending populace. The final battle, the first against another team for Five Fire Flame, would be decided in the hairpins and lagoons of Nikko circuit.

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_And it will be decided NEXT CHAPTER! Hahahaha._

_Ain't I a stinker?_

_Anyways, you're probably wondering what am I doing to Kenta. Well if you think about it, now that Keisuke's a pro, and Ryousuke's a doctor, who does that leave to fill the void in the RedSuns? Well, Kenta, that's who. Before I'm pelted with rotten fruit I want everyone to think about this, the kid has been trained personally for years by Keisuke Takahashi AND he's been around Project D for the entirety of it's existence. When you think about it Kenta would be one hell of a driver now. But to be a competitive driver, especially considering that Nakazato Takeshi has his GTR and more experience, he'd need a different car to his s14 Q... well why look beyond the car of his mentor? But at least this time he has a more sensible colour..._

_Hope everyone liked the inclusion of a bonafide drift competition, like I said at the beginning, Initial D really doesn't show the fact that most drivers compete in different forms of racing for fun or practice. The most that is ever mentioned of it is in reference to Ryousuke and Kyouichi practicing autocross (also called gymkhana), but anyway, I thought it would be a good way to introduce a Gunma racer without it being to stereotypical, headlights in the distance, sort of challenge._

_Truth be told, I'm not incredibly happy with this chapter, but I had a lot of time to make up and get the footwork done to begin to introduce later events, so I was working within parameters and this is what I got._

_Any way, stay tuned, more on Five Fire Flame, and Dysuke's battle with Kenta next chapter._


	6. Challenges and Victories

_Well? Where were we? _

_Oh yes Kenta and Dysuke!_

_Well, rather than stand on ceremony..._

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**Challenges and Victories. **

With a flick of his wrists and a small input of throttle, Nobutachi Dysuke turned his car in and allowed the rear of his white Altezza to settle into the comfortable feeling of drift. Even with Kogashiwa's SW20 breathing down his neck, Dysuke, the drift expert of Five Fire Flame, kept a relaxed pace, recounting to himself the battle against Nakamura Kenta of the Akagi RedSuns.

Both cars had had more or less equal power, there were certain limits that common sense and intelligent tuning placed on mountain going cars, but Kenta's FD was lighter, and much more agile in the corners compared to the portly four-door Toyota. Kenta had led for the first lap, keeping a quick, but more importantly tight line, even on a sodden Nikko circuit. Dysuke pushed himself as close as possible to the RedSuns leader as possible, hoping to put the young driver off his line. Kenta was, unfortunately, hardly fazed, tailgating was a very common practice on the touge, and experienced drivers were rarely worried by it. The first lap should have been a tie, Dysuke had approached one corner in the wrong gear and not drifted it properly, but Kenta had cut the apex of two corners with his front wheels, unless one of them made a critical mistake the battle would probably continue for another two laps.

Reacting to Takuya's brake lamps, Dysuke began the necessary down-shifting and braking to take the upcoming hairpin. Kogashiwa had been the one to lead the team to Happohagga, wanting to demonstrate to Rina the differences in line that should be taken if you drove a midship car. Keeping Rina's face in his mind for a moment Dysuke smiled and pushed his accelerator hard to the firewall, generating two huge plumes of smoke. Though it wasn't really his place to tell her, Dysuke was proud of the young woman, how she had taken to drifting so quickly, how, despite his earlier suspicions, she hadn't slacked her workload at University at all. Kogashiwa was a very lucky young man. A very lucky young man.

On his lap as leader Dysuke had perfectly mimicked Kenta's tight line-taking strategy, startling Takuya in the pits, the person most knowledgeable with Dysuke's technique. Normally on the track he would take an out-in-out line, the most common and fastest line method through a corner. Changing his line taking for a battle was an advanced strategy, one Takuya hadn't realised Dysuke was fully capable of until now.

"I wonder how...?"

Leaning over the barricade to look at Takuya, Rina gave a little smile.

"The same way I learned to drift. We practiced, of course! While you and Kai were busy practicing on the mountains, Dysuke took me out to a car park near aniki's workshop and helped me practice sliding the car. Once I could do 90 and 180 degree turns, he set out corners with paint, I told him he wasn't allowed to do that to the parking lot, but he wouldn't listen and made me do it anyway. It was _so_ hard, Dysuke painted really small streets onto the road, even he didn't get it right all the time, but he wouldn't paint wider ones and eventually we got used to letting the car drift in a close space. We practiced nearly every day, aniki isn't too happy with us, we used up so many of his practice tires!" Impressed despite himself, Takuya turned back to the track while Rina answered a few questions from Kai as she snuggled familiarly with him.

The Altezza caught Takuya's EP82 easily on the straight, but was unable to overtake. Takuya, knowing that he was better than his friend in the corners, moved his turbo Starlet into the centre of the road, blocking off his overtaking attempt, before returning to the outside for a corner. Showing his increased maturity on the touge, Dysuke didn't adversely retort to Takuya's little stunt, instead he concentrated on following the line his friend's car set and optimising his cornering speed. Predictably Takuya still won ground, his car was lighter and while Takuya knew exactly how to eliminate his car's understeering, Dysuke still let his car oversteer out of habit, and enjoyment. But the difference wasn't a great as it had been two months ago and Dysuke was able to keep most of his car in his own lane as he drifted, a precaution that he felt warranted. They had seen the Lancer Evolution VII's of Evo Prime circling the pass earlier that night and Dysuke had no desire to have his bodywork ruined by a Mitsubishi rally beast. Truth be told, Dysuke was beginning to see the limits of drift, hell if it wasn't for Ken-san and his father supporting his car racing habit, his father having been a bit of an enthusiast in his day, (hell he still owned a Nur Spec 34 GTR at the wintering age of 52), he would have been hard pressed to keep paying for tires. But money aside, he knew that it was his car's tendency to break into drift that made a big difference in the cornering speed between Takuya and Kai and himself and Rina. Perhaps some time on the track would help, or some advice for Ken-san, six years of breathing and eating drift was a hard routine to break alone.

The battle had indeed reached a second round with Kenta again in the lead. By this time though their tires were beginning to succumb to heat and taking a tight line was much harder. There were a few turns where Dysuke was tempted to attempt to overtake and settle the battle, but the risk of striking the FD was too great. It was a similar story for Kenta when the two reversed position, it was obvious that he wanted to overtake, but couldn't do it safely. The battle would, once again, have to go into another round to determine a winner.

Dysuke knew that the end of the Happohagga run was after this corner, a short run-off before a wide gallery area that allowed racers to congregate and socialise. Simply to annoy Takuya he waited until the EP82 slowed, a common practice when collectively running a pass with spectators around, and blasted by him on full boost, quickly jumping back in the appropriate lane and hitting his hazards to indicate that they were parking. Takuya followed suite, not before flicking his lights on and off a few times to show his annoyance at the more powerful car. As Five Fire Flame entered the parking area, Dysuke noticed a pair of Evo VII's, they had to be Evo Prime, along with a black 32 and a red EG6, probably another team from the area, or even novice racers seeking Evo Prime's advice on running the treacherous Happo pass. Giving the cars a wider enough berth, Dysuke parked his car, careful not to use the handbrake in case the red-hot discs fused to the brake pads, and switched it off, his turbo timer allowing the car to cool down in peace. Takuya had already exited his Starlet to offer Dysuke a cigarette, and Kai was congratulating Rina for seeing the heart of tonight's lesson. Leaning on his carbon-fibre hood, Takuya kept his attention solely on the EG6 and 32, even to the point of ignoring the lighter Dysuke was attempting to return. With a confused look on his face Takuya fished his phone out of his pocket and ran through the listed numbers he had saved for various reasons. Arriving at one that he thought suspicious, Takuya signalled for quite to the rest of his team and set his phone to ring. Across the car park there was the shrill notes of a mobile phone and the intended recipient, Shouji Shingo, answered with his usual lacklustre tone.

"Yeah what?"

"Shouji?"

"Yeah, who's this?"

"Ohna Takuya. Hey, turn around." Doing as requested the longhaired EG6 driver turned a slow 180 degrees until he saw Takuya, cheekily waving his mobile phone in Shouji's direction. Wandering over with another driver, tall and solemn, in tow, Shouji took out a cigarette, lit it and continued his conversation with Takuya.

"Oi oi, Ohna, what are you doing here? Decided to travel around looking for challengers huh?" Well if nothing else the Myougi driver hadn't changed his acerbic tongue. Takuya laughed half-heartedly in response.

"No nothing like that Shouji, I moved here from Saitama for Uni. I changed courses from business to education..." Takuya let the sentence trail of at Shouji's obvious disinterest.

"So, whose this, your new team our something?"

"Something like that yeah. Shouji Shingo, meet Nobutachi Dysuke, Kogashiwa Kai and Satou Rina. Together I suppose you could call us Five Fire Flame."

Ignoring the niceties of conversation the EG6 driver mulled over the names he was given.

"Nobutachi? Weren't you the guy that battled the RedSuns brat over at Nikko circuit?"

The amount of attention Shouji had been paying was evident; he was talking to Kai, not Dysuke. With a roll of his eyes, either at being ignored or at the thought that Kai would actually hold up to Kenta in a drift battle Dysuke replied.

"Yes, _I _was."

It was the third round now, Kenta's FD leading Dysuke's Altezza. Tires were worn, nerves were frayed and things were about to get interesting. When the judges had told them that one more round was necessary to critic them properly Kenta had launched his car hard, using the better power to weight ratio of the FD to attempt to simply outrun the heavier Toyota. Somehow, with shuffling blasts of boost and rev-limiter, Dysuke had gained exiting the apex of the turn as Kenta set up for a tight right hand corner. Rushing to catch up and compete on equal footing, Dysuke slightly understeered at the entrance point of the corner, but with a quick tug of the handbrake had retrieved his line and set the Altezza into oversteer. The next corner the two would drift side by side. Abandoning even the pretence of maintaining a tight line, or perhaps just not turning the wheel quickly enough, Kenta ran wide, drifting at a wide angle. Seeing his chance to settle the battle Dysuke dived in.

"So Shouji is the offer for a race still on the table?" After what had happened between Kenta and Dysuke, it would be good to show the level of skill and racing experience that Takuya brought to the team. Screwing his mouth to one side Shouji considered the arrangement. The two had met at the pits of a Mirage Cup race at Twin-Ring Motegi. Though they exchanged numbers, both being skilled with the FF platform, Shingo never expected to hear from Takuya. What could it hurt; he hadn't had a race since his car had been totalled in the gum-tape deathmatch against Iwaki Seiji and, truth be told, Shingo was dieing for another run.

"Yeah alright, next Saturday over at Myougi, I'll be waiting at 10 pm."

Having remained silent for the conversation until this point, the stoic beside Shingo spoke up.

"Shingo! You shouldn't be making plans at a time like this. What about Seiji?"

With an insubordinate snort Shingo whirled on his teammate.

"What about him Takeshi? It's not like me racing is going to kill him and anyways, he put himself in front of the truck, I'm sure he'll live with the consequences." Gape mouthed at what Shouji had just said his teammate, Nakazato Takeshi, shook his head and excused himself from the conversation. Although he was sure Shingo wished Seiji the best, there was no way in hell that he was going to be told not to do something by the Night Kids team leader and let him get away with it. Ignoring the outburst between the two Night Kids, having dealt with Dysuke and Kai making it much easier, Takuya concentrated on accepting Shingo's challenge.

"10 pm, next Saturday, on Myougi? Alright you've got a deal."

Saying his farewells, which really consisted of a shrug to all concerned, Shingo rejoined his teammate and the Evo Prime drivers. With a punch on the arm, one of Rina's many effective ways of gaining attention, she turned Takuya's interest to her.

"You've got a battle! That's so cool, just like Dysuke! Now Kai and I need to find one."

Raising an eyebrow at how easy Rina made it sound, not for the first time, Takuya hoped that his battle would be clear of rain clouds.

Dysuke dived in, equal with Kenta's position on the corner, even at equal speed Dysuke had the inside now, there was no way that he would not overtake the RedSuns FD. Preparing to burry the throttle and cloud the sky with victory tire smoke Dysuke suddenly saw exactly what it was that the RedSuns leader had been doing. He hadn't made a mistake; he did the one thing that could win the battle. He enticed Dysuke into a pool of standing water. While they were trailing each other with tight lines their concentration had been solely on mimicking each other as perfectly as possible on the available space. When Kenta opened up the inside it had been a deliberate play on Dysuke's instincts. He had wanted him to take the inside the whole time, it was the outside of the corner that was free of rainwater. Reacting as best he could, Dysuke vainly considered running wide but with the FD beside him there was no other option. Trying his best to simply run through it, the FFF Altezza ploughed apexing wheel first into the lake, bogging down immediately. The rear tires, free of the cloying embrace, continued on their sideways expedition without the front and in that terrible instant, Dysuke still pushing on the wheel for more opposite lock, the front and rear exchanged alignment. Kenta had sailed by, somewhat messy to avoid Dysuke as he spun, but his victory was assured. Looking at his rain splattered bonnet and able to hear the cheers of the crowd and the announcers as they praised not only the victor, but_ his_ effort as well, Dysuke was unable to be bitter about the outcome. It was a great battle _and _on the plus side he had won himself a new bonnet from local brand 'Optimum Line'. All in all a good result, Kenta was one hell of an opponent and with moves like that he deserved the win and the right to challenge the D1 grand prix.

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_Well now, Dysuke loses but he's happy with his effort, as well he should be against the RedSuns experienced ace, with the rain working for him. Speaking of rain, it's pouring outside, pretty ironic, if you ask me. Anyways, that's the battle between Kenta and Dysuke, and as an added bonus you get a challenge from Takuya to the downhill specialist of Myougi. For those of you who read and love BoomChish's amazing Follow the Leader, this chapter of course fits in between Seiji and Kyouichi racing and Seiji awaking in the hospital, the two Evo Prime members could have been any combination, but I'm sure everyone has their suspicions on who stayed at the hospital and who was conversing with the Night Kids._

_Anyways, by now you may be wondering what happened to the omnipotent Nicolas Sainz. Stay tuned, while the members of Five Fire Flame are busy confronting the Night Kids he'll be taking a look within his passion for racing and the reasons for his return to Tochigi, look out, things could get deep and spiritual man!_

_Next chapter, the showdown, Sainz and Sodou. Don't miss it._


	7. Sainz and Sodou: the showdown

_Well, hello everyone. Remember me?_

_Sorry for the delay in updating, I've been taking some well-deserved time off on Vanuatu. Got to say that the neither the roads nor the cars impressed me overly, but I did get to see one red AE92 Trueno coupe (that's the next generation Trueno after Takumi's, an FF 1.6L NA) that was modified for 'fun on the coral roads'. The owner was the head of main tire sales place in Port Villa and was from Laos, we got talking over a few drinks at a downtown Villa bar and he took me for a ride around the island the next day. Pretty cool stuff, very reminiscent of my childhood racing days…_

_Anyways, when we left things the members of Five Fire Flame had just discovered that Iwaki Seiji had been hospitalised from his race with Sodou Kyouichi. This chapter we get to see what happened between Sainz and Sodou in the interim between BoomChish's two chapters. Enjoy and don't forget to review._

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**Sainz and Sodou: the showdown**

A92, no wait, maybe that was A82. As Nicolas Sainz rushed the hallway of the Maebashi hospital he struggled to remember the exact details of what his one-time sempai had imparted. Sainz caught the basics; a battle with another LanEvo driver, a crash involving a truck and some disjointed yammering about something called Prime. Evo Prime, Emperor Prime, something absurd like that. It was obvious that Sodou had been medicated from the languid tone of his voice; Sainz only prayed that he was coherent enough to receive visitors. He passed room A82 and slid the door open a fraction to hopefully identify the occupant as Sodou. No such luck. Nor was his luck any better at A92. That couldn't be right, the GT4 driver was certain that it was 82 or 92, if Sodou wasn't in either, maybe he had been moved. The thought caused Sainz's breath to catch for a split second and there was an involuntary tightening in his chest as the possibilities erupted inside his mind. Tightening his eyes, Sainz struck out against the wall in denial and made his way for the reception desk. Startled, he stopped dead when he recognised one of the doctors standing off to the side of his target. It had been years and the man's profile was partially obscured by a rather attractive blonde young woman, but the aura was identical. The same still, calculating perfection permeated the air around Takahashi Ryousuke and for a minute Sainz's one-time fear of Akagi's White Comet nearly got the better of him.

"Takahashi Ryousuke."

Turning, his face revealing neither surprise nor disapproval, Ryousuke faced down the younger man.

"Nicolas Sainz." There it was, something that in a different life, Nicolas Sainz had worked so hard for: to be treated as an equal by his heroes. It was ironic that now, when it meant so little by necessity, that he had supposedly earned it. Maybe Ryousuke just didn't want to give Sainz any undue shame. For a moment the young gaijin wondered if Ryousuke knew… he had to know, Takahashi Ryousuke knew everything about current events in racing.

"You are here to see Kyouichi?"

At that point the young woman at Ryousuke's side looked from Sainz, to Ryousuke and then back to Sainz. She had seen all the Emperor team members, and he definitely wasn't one of them. If not a teammate then she found it hard to believe that a man like Sodou Kyouichi could have friends. Silent, barely able to maintain eye contact with Ryousuke, Sainz nodded.

"Well that's a relief, beside's you no one has been to visit him. His teammates obviously feel that it is beyond their station and we have had some difficulty contacting his family. Perhaps you visiting him will encourage his recovery." Excusing himself from the young woman, Sainz thought that he caught her name as Sayuki; the acclaimed White Comet indicated that the young gaijin should follow him.

"It has been difficult holding Kyouichi here for his own good. Even though his injuries were not of an overly serious nature, we felt it was best to keep him under surveillance. The nurses have had quite a hard time keeping him in his room, he was constantly walking to the gardens for a cigarette and so I had them move him closer to the gardens. At least now he is easy to find."

Behind Ryousuke Nicolas walked in a daze, the last time he had been in a hospital had been right after…

"No."

Startled to have actually said the word aloud Sainz masked it by rubbing his moustache and coughing. If Ryousuke noticed the Freudian slip, he gave no indication, but then from what Sainz remembered of Ryousuke, he seldom did. Ever the gentleman, Ryousuke politely held the door of the garden atrium open for Sainz.

"He's toward the back. I think he expects you."

With that the two parted ways, Sainz to Sodou and Ryousuke back to his work. Kyouichi was there, towards the back just like Ryousuke had said he would be, still wearing that ridiculous white bandana over his platinum hair and fidgeting with a pack of Lucky Strikes. The only visible signs of his crash were some light bruising that had yet to fully colour and a medical neck brace that made the Emperor team leader look amusingly like a cotton-tip. The alleviating humour had no affect on Sainz, who promptly sat beside Kyouichi, fumbled for his own packet of cigarettes and lit one. Taking a calming breath through the small cylinder he turned to Sodou.

"Is the Evo damaged?"

Only a racer would ask such a seemingly callous question of an injured person, and only a racer like Sodou Kyouichi would answer it without insult.

"Not badly."

He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts.

"Iwaki Seiji blocked the truck with his Evo IV. It could have been the death of him, but he put himself in between me and the truck."

Sainz's breath caught in his throat, the action Kyouichi just described was extremely reckless and utterly admirable. As experienced with racing as Sainz was he had yet to meet someone whom he thought would have the courage to do that for another person, especially on the touge where any crash could mean a long fall into a canyon.

"Seiji surprised me. His potential surprised me."

The strange tone made Sainz raise his eyebrow and wonder if the meds he suspected Sodou to be on had suddenly kicked in.

"It is hard to describe, Seiji was my lieutenant in Emperor, my best friend, but for all that he wasn't a very commendable person."

Sodou smiled.

"Actually he was an ass! He was rude, hotheaded, chauvinistic and arrogant; he would never listen to me when I tried to help him as a driver. That was the Iwaki Seiji I knew. I defined him within boundaries that I never expected him to reach, let alone exceed, and there I left him for years. But people can grow unexpectedly. I removed him from Emperor… I… I really treated him quite badly. I think that I had hoped that by wounding his pride he would see the truth of everything I had been trying to force feed him for years, although maybe it was just to ease my own sense of loss for the team's reputation. I had expected him to come crawling back, or at the very least quit the touge scene, I didn't think he had the potential for anything else. That's where he surprised me, that's when I realised that it is under extreme adversity that a person jumps into their full potential."

Full potential? Kyouichi must have been medicated, racing was a sum of training, technique and reflexes; working on those things was the key to improvement, not adversity… wasn't it? Was Sodou even referring to racing, or the inherent qualities of a person? Thinking of his own long brush with adversity Sainz suddenly felt ashamed, neither his driving nor his character could have said to have improved.

"He formed his own team, really what I thought of as a group of rich brats with the money to afford Evo VII's, but the growth of his team's ability and Seiji's own growth as a person proved me wrong. Evo Prime came out with victories against two members of TRS, and I can assure you their skill level hasn't dropped since our days with Todou, and with a revenge match against the racer who precipitated Seiji's fall from Emperor. During that time I noticed how Seiji was growing in his role as a team leader. I don't know whether it was from constantly living with three difficult youths or whether it was from dealing with my constant baiting, but he gained maturity, respect and discretion that were completely alien to him before. Even when his brother was attacked by Emperor members, he didn't come for revenge, I could see it in his eyes, he came for something else, something personal. He came to show me who he really was. Through all the troubles he had gone through, all the hardship, he had found the real Iwaki Seiji, and he validated that beyond anyone's expectations on Usui. He knew that the truck would have killed me and even though, with a rollcage in his car, it would still have been an inconsiderable risk, his took it for my sake alone. He…"

Disturbed by a knock upon the glass door entrance to the garden both Sainz and Sodou turned to see a young nurse with an urgent expression on her face.

"Sodou-san, Dr Takahashi wanted me to inform you that visiting hours are over and that your guest must leave now. Orderlies will be coming soon to assure everyone is in their rooms for dinner."

Whatever had been on the tip of Kyouichi's lips forgotten under a stream of grumbling, Kyouichi and Sainz said their farewells, Sodou promising to call when he was released… though truth be told Sainz had no idea how his one time mentor had acquired his new mobile phone number, and left. Struggling to digest everything Kyouichi had said Sainz walked right past Ryousuke without noticing and made a straight line for his GT4. As he started the engine and warmed it to a safe operating temperature Sodou's words of potential and adversity came back to haunt him. Nicolas Sainz was not accustomed to the idea of loss and improvement going hand in hand and he had seen enough loss to consider himself something of an expert. Sodou had to be wrong, Sainz wouldn't accept his theory, there was no way in hell that some sick destiny threw people in front of trucks and off of mountainsides as a morbid self-help seminar. In angry denial he slammed his gearshift into first and spun all four tires as he exited the car park.

From a window several stories up Takahashi Ryousuke watched him go, the small amount of humour he found at Sainz predictably driving a Toyota Celica GT4 extinguished by his concern over the young man's erratic behaviour. Something of his conversation with Sodou Kyouichi must have shaken him. Acting on little more than a hunch he retrieved his mobile phone and dialled in Fumihiro's number.

"Fumihiro, contact Kenta, I want him to go to Usui and keep watch for a yellow ST185 Celica. Tell him to wait in the galleries at the tight exit of C-121 and to call me with details should anything arise." Assured that the well-oiled RedSuns team would act accordingly, Ryousuke closed his mobile and wondered what to do next. Kenta would be on Usui if Sainz were to appear, but he would only have a small time to see the car's actions from his vantage point and with Sainz's behaviour pushing well into the realms of unpredictable an accident could occur on the long and tight Usui touge. If that were to occur, it was likely Kyouichi would never recover from the ordeal. Reaching for his mobile phone once again he dialled a second number and waited for a reply.

"Hello?"

"Oh Takahashi-san! How nice of you to call us."

"No we've left the hospital, we're going out for coffee with Shingo and Takeshi."

"A favour? Of course I don't mind."

"Usui? We hadn't planned on going there, is it important?"

"Really? Is he in danger?"

"Hmmm, alright we'll pass through Usui before meeting the Night Kids. Takahashi-san, if we find him what should we do?"

"_Take him to coffee!?_"

"Sorry, it's just a strange thing to ask."

"Alright then, if we find him then we'll bring him to coffee and you can meet us there."

"You're welcome Takahashi-san. Goodbye."

Truly Ryousuke doubted that _anyone _would be able to sveltely drag Nicolas Sainz off to coffee but if someone ran Usui, if only once or twice, it would flush the Celica driver out and assure his safety until Ryousuke had a chance to talk to him personally. He only hoped that, with the personalities involved he hadn't laid the groundwork for a war.

* * *

_Well, not a war Takahashi-san, but a battle perhaps. I'm interested to see how closely everyone is reading my story, I threw away a tidbit of information about Sainz in this chapter that could prove interesting, and is vital to the continuation of explaining his character._

_Anyhow, feel free to review._


	8. Painful Memories

_Well…_

_Don't do it Dysuke!_

_Well…_

_I'm warning you!_

_WELL…!_

_thump, crash, bang_

_Um, Kai-kun, do you think we should try to stop them?_

_Who would've thought that a fistfight could start over who wanted to sing karaoke first! Probably best just to leave them, let's go get a coffee. Hey the owner doesn't look too pleased…_

_RUN!_

_Oh I'm sorry, the members of Five Fire Flame are currently busy escaping incarceration, you'll have to wait for their antics a little while, so I threw something together on Usui. Be careful, this one is a bit of a tear-jerker._

* * *

**Painful Memories.**

Nakamura Kenta had gotten to Usui as quickly as his FD would carry him after hearing from Fumihiro. If Ryousuke asked anything of the active RedSuns leader, he hastened to obey… there were certain familial responsibilities to that. As of yet neither Kenta nor Fumihiro had spotted the ST185 Celica, they had inspected the spot where Sodou Kyouichi and Iwaki Seiji had crashed, but after nearly an hour of waiting at C-121 they had yet to see a single car. It was one of the downsides to the touge lifestyle, the sometimes wasted hours on the side of mountains waiting for people that never ended up showing. Things were so much more interesting when Project D had been around…

As the two RedSuns veterans waited patiently at C-121 a much more experienced driver inspected the site of the LanEvo/truck crash site. He had been there only ten minutes, remembering the exact roads to take to find the Usui touge had been difficult and Nicolas Sainz had not been in the mood to stop and ask for directions. By the look of the tire marks and the scraps and impact marks on the guardrail everything had happened as Sodou had said. There was clear evidence of one car cutting quickly in front of the other, before being struck by the truck and pushed backwards into the guardrail. What stood as testament to the skill of all drivers concerned however was the short distance that the two tangled Evo's had been pushed and the fact that the guardrail was still intact. There was no hard evidence of the broken cars remaining; touge racers were quite industrious when it came to clearing away dangers on their favourite passes. Crouching on the road the European driver ran his fingertips over the tire mark almost as one would caress a lover; gently and with supreme knowledge. In that instant Nicolas Sainz remembered.

It was a clear mourning, perfect for testing the limitations of the Toyota Team Racing Corolla. They had entered Rally Spain, masked as a privateer team, with high spirits. The testing of the new Corolla had been going exceedingly well during the early stages of the WRC season and, in his privateer division, Nicolas Sainz had never dropped from the hunt for first place. That gave the team cause for celebration, the rally was a homecoming for their young and vaunted tarmac specialist, and he was expected to sweep the competition away on the high-speed mountain stages that had been set out.

Owing to his second placing on the championship he would be the second out of the day, not so bad a placing, as the leader had the problem of brushing the film of dust, leaves and stones from the road. Although the team leader had issued orders to safeguard the title contention and the valuable prototype car the atmosphere when the young half-Spaniard had launched reached a fever. As the boost instantly responded, the spectators blurred together and team orders collided with hard-won instincts from the Tochigi mountains that had made him such a beast on tarmac. Without realising it himself, his pace had increased immensely when compared to the notes that his co-driver Christopher Ruddock had been calling; he was forcing the braking points much later and testing the full grip of his tires, meaning his cornering speeds were averaging ten kilometres faster than on paper. Never before had the Corolla felt so natural an extension of Nicolas's movements before, never had the newly developed Active Yaw Control and Active Central Diff worked better for the team.

Though he trusted his partner's skills Christopher was beginning to feel nervous, one mistake now, perched on the side of a narrow mountain road could spell disaster; and Nicolas seemed to be increasing his pace every step of the way, completely oblivious to the wearing down of the tires and brakes. Making a mental note to remind the young driver of his team orders when they reached the upcoming straight, Christopher called the necessary coding for the uphill right-hand hairpin they were approaching and turned the page for the following left-hand sweeper. He was startled when the in-cabin phone rang, though Nicolas had blocked it out to set up for the straight that would lead to the high-speed entry.

"Ruddock, dangerous hazard on section 147, Kurosawa clipped a deadfall in his Subaru and pierced the sump, they've broken down and there's oil covering the entire track."

In complete shock Ruddock slammed the phone down and turned to his driver as they shrieked into the entrance for the left-hand sweeping corner.

Section 147.

Very few people really knew the particulars of the following, critical, moments, both Subaru team members were well to the side of the road, awaiting their team to collect the damaged vehicle and the crowd had such a small timeframe to witness the Corolla that most of them couldn't recount it's actions. Only the Toyota driver, reacting as his navigator spat the counselling words, could ever hope to intimately recall those terrible seconds.

In a blur, the warning of Kurosawa's crash reaching his ears, Nicolas's left-foot began the hard braking needed to pull the Corolla up and his left hand repeatedly tapped the sequential gearbox's gearstick forward to downshift. There was one moment, as the brakes and tires refused to bite into the road-surface as they should, where Nicolas and Christopher both knew they had reason to panic.

Then they were out of control.

By braking Nicolas had loaded the weight of the car towards the front and so, when they hit the oil patch, the rear of the Corolla naturally spun around. Travelling sideways the right front quarter-panel struck the marooned Imprezza and spun the Toyota even further. Even as Nicolas reached for the handbrake, the rear end of the Corolla broke through the antique stone wall on the side of the road, and the Toyota Team Racing pair were pitched from the Spanish mountainside.

It had all happened in less than four seconds.

Nicolas Sainz had woken up a week later in a hospital bed.

Christopher Ruddock had not.

As he crouched there, on the side of a mountain where a brave, stupid man had saved Sodou Kyouichi from a very similar fate, Sainz thought the falling rain was very fitting. Then he realised, it wasn't raining at all, he was crying, the tears streaming down his face as they had not before. He had killed the only friend who had ever treated him as an equal, the only real friend he had ever had. In the wake of that nothing mattered, not Tochigi, not Sodou Kyouichi or Takahashi Ryousuke, not his unambitious, uninterested attempt at education, not the sounds of an engine rushing towards him.

He had lost.

Nicolas Sainz, the young man that had prided himself on his heritage and his skill, the young man considered to be the next unbeatable rally driver in the making, had lost.

As he looked at the oncoming headlights he thought to himself that he might as well retire now.

"What the hell are you trying to do!? Get yourself killed if you want, but leave us the hell out of it!"

Nicolas Sainz ignored the outrage in the voice and just stared, stared at that point in the ground where the tire tracks came together. Stared at that reflection of selfless action as though it were the answer to something.

He thought back to Rally Spain, to the celebration, the day before the initial competition. Standing shoulder to shoulder with his grandfather, a man that he had seen very little of since he was a child. The immortal, legendary Carlos Sainz had, in a crowd of their countrymen, proclaimed the future of rally to be on his grandson's shoulders. In a sudden flash of insight he remember that neither his grandfather's nor his own co-driver had a placing on the podium. It really had been a selfish moment of glory, all things considered. There was an old saying that a co-driver could only lose a stage for the driver and thinking back, Nicolas Sainz admitted the absurdity of the quote. Having driven alone for years Nicolas Sainz knew the danger of the unexpected, the danger of miscalculation. A co-driver was the anchor to which a driver's often explosive technique hitched itself. The co-driver was the true hero of rally, not the driver. If Nicolas Sainz had learnt that two years ago, he could have avoided so much pain…

So much pain.

"Are you alright sir?" The voice was different, not the angry, aggrieved voice of before. Someone different, but still Nicolas Sainz ignored it. What did it matter?

"Please sir, you have to get off the road, it's not safe." Nicolas felt a pair of smooth skinned arms struggle vainly below his chest to lift him. He would have ignored it, save that he thought the poor person might tip over with the difference in their weight. Half dragged, Nicolas Sainz made his way to a standing position. As predicted his would-be helper overbalanced and he had to spin and throw his arms around the small of the person's back and hold them closely to his chest. The action provoked a blush in both parties.

"I'… I'm sorry. You shouldn't worry about me." Nicolas reflexively tucked a stray strand of his hair behind his ears.

Standing opposite, the polite young lady gave an enchanting smile.

"You shouldn't say such things. Are you… Nicolas Sainz?" Slightly suspicious, Nicolas nodded the affirmative. "Oh, I thought so, Takahashi Ryousuke sent us to look for you. Would you like to get some coffee?"

At the mention of the White Comet, Nicolas felt oddly dead, as though the good dead the young woman had shown him was nothing more than a mechanical response to the orders of the Akagi driver. Suddenly aware of his puffy eyes and the streaks of moisture on his cheeks he turned from her and made for the sanctuary of his GT4.

"Thank you but I'm going for a drive along the Usui pass."

Knowing that the reasoning for Dr Takahashi's phone call to them might very well be the chance of the young man doing himself an injury, the woman, no stranger to attacking the corners on the winding mountain roads, thought it best to dissuade him of his chosen course, or at the very least accompany him for his own safety.

"We could come with you…"

The young man stopped from his retreat, but did not turn around.

"You wouldn't keep up."

A shocked gasp passed through both of the assembled racers. The young woman looked insulted.

"Is it because I am a woman?"

Once again making for his driver's seat the young man responded.

"No."

The other racer, the passenger by the looks, did not make her rebuttal so meek. Face going red in fury they made quite clear what they thought of Nicolas Sainz.

"Can't keep up!? Even with that out of date 4WD piece of rust you couldn't keep up with us through one corner, let alone the entire course you fetid arrogant amateur. They were pathetic in the WRC and they're pathetic on the mountains!"

Pathetic in the WRC?

Nicolas Sainz's hands clenched immediately and the sound of grating teeth permeated the humid air. With a savage twist his door came open, almost off at the hinges. He remember his friend, he remembered his grandfather, he remembered the empty feeling when he awoke in hospital, when he confronted Christopher's sister. With everything he had seen, with everything he had done, Nicolas Sainz had nothing left to fear, nothing from life, nothing from death. With a snarl he leapt into his bucket seat.

"Then prove me wrong!"

* * *

_Gee I wonder who Sainz is so angry with Evo Prime? Night Kids? Emperor? Hell could it be Kyoko of the NW All Stars._

_Guess you'll just have to wait and see now won't you._

_So I finally revealed the heritage of Nicolas Sainz, the observant probably guessed his grandfather was the Matador Carlos Sainz, but now you know for sure and you see why it is that young Nicolas Sainz fled to Tochigi._

_Please read and review._


	9. Yellow Thunder over Usui

_Well, hello everyone, remember me?_

_Sorry I haven't updated in a fair while, my computer's been on the frizzt, I've been busy preparing for Uni and my ball and chain (the GT4 is giving me grief)_

_But here we go with two new chapters..._

_Hope I get some reviews out of this one, especially considering that they both have battles in them._

* * *

Yellow Thunder over Usui.

Shouji Shingo and Nakazato Takeshi quietly sipped their coffee as their friends tried to gather their composure. They'd already kept the Night Kids members waiting a good half hour. Takeshi had held his peace with trademark stoicism but Shingo, ever brutally blunt, wanted the excuse, and he wanted it now.

"Forget we were alive did we?"

One of the young women rolled her eyes and picked up her cup of tea. The other responded in her place, though looking out the window instead of toward the Myogi racers.

"We had a battle on Usui."

Her companion took the startled gasps of the Night Kids as an indication to recount the battle.

"We met him on Usui, he's a friend of Takahashi Ryousuke's…" she put in, allowing some of the White Comet's acclaim to rub off onto their opponent. "Takahashi-san told us that he'd be waiting somewhere on Usui. We nearly ran him over…"

Not wanting to give away the more intimate details of their confrontation, the first woman, half of Usui's famed Impact Blue, put over the top of her partner.

"He was amazing, we thought that he was just another guy who looked down on girls racing, but he was the fastest opponent I've ever raced, even faster than Fujiwara Takumi…"

The Celica's brakelights lit up for the barest of seconds, quickly adjusting the weight displacement of the car for the up coming corner, which it took with a strong grip style. Moving with confidence of a strong routine, Satou Mako set up a small angle drift, closing some of the distance between the Celica and her Sil-Eighty. At the exit however the GT4 easily distanced them, showing none of the disadvantages a powerful turbo engine normally showed on the Usui course. Sayuki called instruction for the following right-left-right combination and Mako prepared for the necessary movements she would have to put her Nissan through. From her co-driver seat Sayuki had to admit that the Celica driver, although he was a gaijin and not a local Usui racer, was incredibly fast. Incredibly fast. Even with Mako in the best shape of her life, faster than she had been by far then when she had raced the Akina 86, she was finding it difficult to corner at the same speed as the GT4, let alone match his speed at the exits. It was making strange explosion like backfires under deceleration, flames licking out of the exhaust regularly, something that niggled at Sayuki. It was… it was definitely something important. With another combination of corners coming in fast she was forced to ignore the train of thought in favour of navigating for Mako. The corners were tight, normally that would have given the lighter Sil-Eighty an advantage, but still the yellow GT4 held it's own, even improved upon it. Mako had said upon returning to the Nissan's cabin that she was worried the young man might do himself an injury, that she would try not to pressure him but unless Mako unleashed everything she had, Impact Blue would be dealt a humiliating defeat on their own home course. Turning to Mako, Sayuki prepared to push Impact Blue into full flight.

"Mako, you can't let this guy get away. Forget not pressuring him, you're going to have to go all out here. Make him eat his words for saying that the fastest of Usui couldn't keep up!" Though Mako was less concerned about Nicolas's words than Sayuki, he hadn't meant to insult them at all, he sounded, well, disappointed, in her battle state of mind, she responded with a tight jaw. The next three corners she slowly chipped away at the Celica's lead until she exited nose to tail with him. The GT4's driver must have been surprised by this, or curious, because at the exit he only distanced himself a car length or two and then simply maintained that lead. The next corner he took hard, faster than he had previously done, but Mako equalled his speed… this was shaping up to be an amazing dogfight.

"So he won?" Shingo's incredulous voice tore through Sayuki's recollection. Mako gave a quite nod in confirmation, shocking the two Myogi drivers. Though they were indeed women, Mako and Sayuki were arguably faster than either of the Night Kids aces. Any person who could defeat them could conquer the Gunma with little trouble. Really, unless one of the ex-Project D members took an interest in racing him, he had already beaten the best in the prefecture, and severely rattled her closest rivals.

"Do you think he'll be coming to Myogi?" As leader of the Night Kids team Nakazato Takeshi would be the first wall of defence against the new invader. Although the Night Kids had been doing well lately, the return of their team sticker from Iwaki Seiji and Shingo's acquisition of another EG6 after his ill-fated battle with the same one-time Emperor driver, healing a festering wound in their confidence, Nakazato's stomach burned at the thought of another very likely loss on his home course. Pipping up again from her interest in whatever was going on outside the restaurant, Satou Mako regarded the GTR driver.

"I doubt it actually, I don't think he was on Usui to race, and I doubt he'd bother coming to Myogi. He didn't strike me as the street racer type, he was… more polished than that."

As Sayuki had predicted the battle grew in intensity, the two cars almost touching through corners now. Every time Impact Blue thought they had equalled the Celica's speed, he increased it. Every time Sayuki thought they might be completely outrun, Mako increased her speed in retaliation. There was only going to be one place to settle this battle; C-121. Knowing the pitfall of the corner to be it's exit, Sayuki conceived of a counter-attack strategy. Most people unfamiliar with Usui wouldn't realise that the high-speed corner's wide entry led straight into a very narrow exit. To avoid striking the guardrail they would have to throw on their brakes and slow the car to a near halt to stave off the cornering inertia. It was something that the pair had seen occur dozens of times, regardless of the car's model, power or drivetrain, C-121 caught nearly everyone new to the area. This danger in C-121 opened up the inside of the corner, an opening that Impact Blue, as one of only two people in the scene who could drift the entire corner properly, could walk through to overtake, a win in anyone's mind on Usui.

"Alright Mako it's time! C-121 is coming up and we're going to overtake on the inside. Let's show him why we're the fastest on Usui!" Gritting her teeth Mako increased her pressure on the throttle and set the Sil-Eighty up for the overtake.

As predicted the GT4 torpedoed into corner, taking the only visual cues available to determine speed and line. Any moment now and the opening would be presented. There! Right as the line and the guardrail started toward each other!

"Now!"

Reacting to the signal, Mako dived in, wary of the rear of the Celica as she did so. Watching the rear of the GT4 her eyes widened and she immediately and quickly slowed the Nissan.

"He's going to crash!" She shrieked at her co-driver.

Quickly looking at the car Sayuki realised that the driver hadn't even tried to brake as his car was pulled towards the guardrail, when he hit it was going to be bad!

"Brake, quickly, pull us up!" Despite the angry words that had been flung before the impromptu battle there was no way in hell the pair were going to allow someone to die slowly and alone on their mountain.

They had no idea who they were dealing with. In his own mind, Nicolas Sainz was already dead.

As the Sil-Eighty pulled abruptly to a halt Impact Blue saw what they expected to be the final flight of this yellow Celica. How surprised they were when, in a completely fearless fashion the GT4 driver didn't even tap the brakes. Somehow he managed to suddenly break traction in the rear tires and change the angle of the car. As they watched in amazement he controlled this action and buried the throttle to spin all four of the Celica's tires but maintain enough traction tighten up his line mid-corner and turn what had been hard grip into…

"Zero Counter!"

Impact Blue didn't catch up to him after that.

"Man, Myogi's boring!" Knowing that he had little time to acclimatise himself to the away course, Takuya had skipped university with Dysuke in tow to recce the home of the Night Kids and Shouji Shingo. There were long straights and high-speed corners, a noticeable change in inclination between up and downhill stages. Interesting. Unlike most of the courses in Tochigi, Myogi was mostly high-speed with a furious cornering rhythm. It was also suited much more to grip racing rather than the more popular drift.

Which was the source of Takuya's current headache.

"What's the point of having a team here? There's got to be better places around than this?" Takuya's eyebrow rose, despite his increasing ability at driving touge, Dysuke stilled showed a remarkable naiveté when it came to other places and teams. No wonder the Night Kids team leader drove a GTR if this was his home course, it might not be pretty, but with power and muscle on Myogi it would be damn fast. Even Shouji's B16A engine was a class-leader in power, his EG6 overpowering Takuya's EP82 on downhill runs. Unless…

"Dysuke were you still planning on going Optimum Line this afternoon for your new bonnet?" Startled at the change of topic, Dysuke nodded rather drearily.

"Yeah, I thought that since we have that battle tomorrow night I might as well look my best to represent the team." He answered, a wave of his hand indicating the new team stickers Rina had designed for them, a trio of stylised Fs that glinted red, bronze and gold like a real fire. Dysuke had placed one sticker on each of his rear windows, Takuya's were placed on his front windscreen, on the bottom of the passenger side. 'So people know who is about to overtake them' he had said. Truth be told, there was a lot of tension building over this battle. Unlike some other teams in the area, Five Fire Flame had devoted themselves to the ideal of improving and winning, especially on their opponent's home course since they were bereft of one themselves, and the battle against Myogi's Night Kids would be their first real race since forming. It would determine whether the other teams saw them as a joke, a nuisance at best, or if they would earn the skills and name to rival and exceed them. For now that responsibility rested on Takuya's shoulders. Hopefully he had the right plan for the right time and place.

"Okay, let's get going. I've got the course in my head and I need to talk to someone quickly about my turbo tuning for tomorrow night." Dysuke perked up immediately; if Takuya was changing his settings then he had a good idea how to win this battle! At almost a run he launched himself towards his parked car, thinking of carbon fibre contrasting with white like a child thinks about eating chocolate after he finishes school.

Sitting alone in his dark corner of existence, a young man pondered the previous night's events with somewhat drugged affection. Beside him an empty scotch bottle sat unused, inconsequential. Even in a state graciously described as drunk, his mind worked over the nearly flawless drift of Usui's blue Sil-80. He didn't remember the skill levels of the touge racers being so high. For an instant, only an instant, they had exposed a weakness in a one-time WRC driver. They? She.

Confident drift, even crossing the centre-line unaffected, with minimal counter-steer. Challenging entry speeds. Fast, skilled braking and down shifting.

Beautiful.

At that point Sainz had no idea whether he meant the driving or the driver.

The thought held his mind longer than most.

Before he fell asleep with his face in his arms.


	10. Five Fire Flame vs The Night Kids: The D...

_Well here we go, the first battle on the mountains for FFF, beware the sinister mind of FFF, he's sure to have something up his sleave._

* * *

Five Fire Flame vs The Night Kids:

The Downhill FF Challenge!

"So Shingo, do you think they'll show?" One of the minor members of the Myogi Night Kids asked with excitement. Wondering whether he should dignify the question with an answer, the Myogi downhill specialist nodded the affirmative.

"Ohna Takuya is a true racer, he practices at many tracks and passes. He personally challenged me to this race; of course he'll show! Not that it'll make any difference, on Myogi, with the same class of car, there's no one that can defeat me." Shouji obviously threw this last little fact in to goad his team leader, Nakazato Takeshi, who had been defeated in uphill battles by both a Lancer Evolution and an FD. Nakazato refused to take the bait, no point in beating Shingo to death if the team then had to forfeit after all. The thought brought a smile to his face that Shingo returned for the barest of seconds. From bitter rivals to the best of friends, their day-to-day interaction had changed surprisingly little, although now friendly competition fuelled their jabs, rejoinders and races instead of wasteful pride and disdain. Perhaps he should have thought of something to say, Takeshi thought to himself. Just to keep up appearances.

"They're here!" A voice echoed through the mountain's peak.

As the sound of engines approached Takeshi got his first good look at the young team, having been too busy on Happogahara to remember anything more than the Starlet. As the Tochigi racers pulled into the parking area many sighs of envy came from the assembled gallery and even some of the younger Night Kids. Three of the four cars had carbon fibre bonnets equipped and just by the way they sat on the tarmac Nakazato could tell that they had modified their suspension components. Not only that but, although the Toyota Starlet and SW20 were common enough cars on the touge, the Altezza and ZW30 MRS were considered far too expensive for most people to afford. Were they just rich brats, or were they actually serious enough racers that they could protect their investments. Stepping out of their respective vehicles with synchronised ease and confidence, the Tochigi team made their first impression on the Night Kids.

"They look so confident, just like the RedSuns."

"Check out the girl in the ZW30, she's cute."

"Oi, isn't that the guy from Best Motoring?"

Shingo made a face, if his team members kept being intimidated by visitors, how were they ever going to compete against other teams? He was going to give a lesson in hometown confidence tonight.

"Well, you showed up, I suppose you should get extra points for that." Shingo had a talent for rubbing people the wrong way, but the FFF member, Ohna Takuya, merely smiled back at Shouji. Nakazato Takeshi had the distinct impression of a pair of hungry sharks circling each other.

"Of course I showed up Shouji, I had to be here to beat the course record didn't I?" One of Takuya's teammates, the one beside the Altezza, chuckled at the statement, but Shouji Shingo was not to be taken lightly. His EG6 SiR Civic was considered to be second only to the newer EK9 Type R Civic in the 1.6L class and the B16A was considered the ultimate power plant for that displacement. Even with a turbo, Toyota's Starlet was considered asthmatic, making it's peak power well before redline. For Takuya to take home the win it would come down to set-up, strategy and driving, with a fair amount of luck thrown in.

Well, three out of four would have to do, Takuya mused.

Showing his position as leader, Nakazato Takeshi, Myogi's Black Lightning, stepped forward.

"Since you have few members, the Night Kids will manage this race. If you would like to place your remaining drivers somewhere on the course, tell them where to wait and we can get everyone into position." Takuya nodded his head and gave a thumbs up to the driver of the blue SW20, a serious looking youth, who re-entered his car, accompanied by the laughter of the other one, the Altezza driver. Were they that confident, or was he a few pistons short of an RB26? Well whatever, Shingo wasn't the downhill specialist of the Night Kids for his good-looks and charm, two things most people thought him devoid of, after all. When all was in position, and the checkpoints had radioed back in with the all clear Nakazato stepped between the two competitors to begin the countdown.

"5 4 3 2 1 GO!"

Quickly spinning in place to see the battle of acceleration, Nakazato noted that Shingo definitely had the better traction and power from a standing start. That was good, on other courses Shingo would skulk behind the leading driver, waiting for, or causing, a mistake that would allow him to take the lead and the match. But on Myogi, with an already apparent advantage in traction, there was no point. He made the right decision, build a lead early and then concentrate on keeping it and setting a new course record. As they disappeared from sight into the first section of the course, a short uphill run, the Night Kids leader grinned. An easy win.

Behind the wheel of his EG6 Shingo was less enthusiastic than Nakazato, and much more disappointed. The exits of the EP82 were marred by oversteer and lacklustre grip, resulting in lines running wide and front tires being spun. Frankly Shingo expected more from anyone who had been a part of Best Motoring in any capacity. The thought that Takuya would come to a battle with worn or cheap tires annoyed Shingo, the only reason he had kept up at all was due to the fact that, on an uphill the Starlet's turbo gave it a distinct advantage with it's wider torque band.

That was all about to change.

Shingo could almost taste the coming change in the road from ascension and he licked his lips at the thought of the huge gap he would create when it became a steady and high-speed descent.

Inside the cabin of the EP82 Takuya smiled.

"Kai-kun?" Kogashiwa Kai turned his attention from the road, and the Night Kids standing watch on the corner before their overlooking station, to his girlfriend.

"Hmm?" With a pensive face the young woman hoped that her statement wasn't going to sound absurd to Kai and Dysuke, looking on a few feet away, cigarette between his teeth.

"You told me that the first rule of small power cars was fast cornering. That that was the only way to overtake a more powerful car… and today Takuya said that the Night Kids driver, Shingo, had a better engine than him." Kai listened on intently, everything she had said was true and Kai wanted to know what inferences Rina had made from those pieces of information. "Well, if that's all true, why are we watching on a straight? Wouldn't we want to watch the corners where Takuya will have more of an advantage?" Good, she was learning very well. With a proud smile and squeeze Kai replied.

"I don't know why we're waiting here, Dysuke led the way, but I would guess Takuya had some kind of plan to win. You see the EG6 is a better car for corners and straights on the downhill. It's wider and lighter, with a stiffer chassis, and it's NA so it has better response. But that doesn't mean Takuya has no chance of winning. His Starlet is a well-tuned car; it is just about picking the right time and making that into an opportunity to win." Unobtrusive at the rear of the group, Dysuke smiled. You have no idea Kogashiwa, you have no idea.

The first hairpin of the downhill was fast approaching. Shouji Shingo prepared to brake late and put the distance between him and Takuya that would settle the battle. Almost reacting without thought, the Myogi downhiller shifted his car into second and took the corner, evening out any understeer with his left foot tapping the brake pedal. Smiling he glanced at the rear-view mirror to gauge how much distance he had put between the two cars.

"What the hell?" Until now the EP82 had been losing ground, tires unable to grab the pavement. "What did he do?"

Takuya smiled, by now Shouji was probably hard pressed thinking of the sudden improvement in the Starlet's handling. It was simple really… tires. With the home course advantage and the better car for cornering, Takuya knew that he would have to break one of the unspoken cardinal rules of touge and fit semi-racing compound tires to keep up. Knowing that Shouji was no idiot behind the wheel of his EG6 he masked the extra grip of the new tires by not warming them before the race. Cold, they were hardly a match for Shingo's street radials, but as they ascended the uphill they warmed to optimal temperature and gave Takuya a huge advantage in traction.

The corner's swept back and forth more frequently and the headlights of the EP82 Starlet threatened to burn a hole in the EG6's paintwork. In his cabin though Shingo was still confident with his prospects, even cornering at the same speeds, the Civic could gain an advantage on the exit by having instant response to lie down as opposed to the lag of Takuya's less powerful turbo engine. There were only a couple of corner's to go anyway, and then the final corner and then…

Victory.

"They're here!"

The remaining members of Five Fire Flame ran to the guardrail to see who would lead coming out of the corner. Gripping hard to the inside Takuya's black Starlet pulled level with Shingo's Civic and looked set to overtake.

"No way! There's no way you're going to out accelerate my B16A!"

With a sudden surge the EP82 inched it's nose forward, then it's doors, until finally it had pulled a complete car length on the EG6, both at full acceleration.

"What!? No way!"

Secure in his Bride bucket seat Takuya held one hand on his steering wheel, excited by the new increased acceleration and the pinpoint overtake that had just happened. He had let go of the scramble soon, he didn't want to damage the engine or turbo, but he needed to gain enough space to set his win in stone.

"Yes!"

"How'd he do that?"

Pleased by Rina's elation, and even more so at Kai's befuddlement, Dysuke smiled like a cream-sated cat. Everything had gone exactly to plan, just like Takuya had said it would. Dysuke supposed he should let the other two members of his team in on the little secret. If only to revel in his upper hand for a little while.

"Boost Scramble."

"Huh?"

"Boost Scramble."

Nakazato Takeshi almost pulled his hair out in frustration, a new downhill record had been set, just like pre-race gossip had indicated but it hadn't been the fan favourite home team to set it. According to the last spotters Shingo had been overtaken exiting the last hairpin. Apparently the EP82 had some real power beneath the bonnet and, not only that, had kept it hidden for most of the battle. Five Fire Flame had one real smart guy there, even Takeshi could admit that. Damn it, now he'd be expected to step to the front and defend the honour of the Night Kids, maybe even on the other team's home course.

"What are we going to do Takeshi?" See, right on time. Turning to see the same new member that had earlier doubted whether or not the Tochigi team would even show up the GTR driver answered tersely.

"What do we do? Leave that to me. No one thought that the Starlet would have been so powerful, but we'll have our revenge and I'll be the one to do it."

With that Nakazato Takeshi, Black Lightning, entered the cabin of his Skyline, started it and exited the Myogi galleries.

'Don't worry Shingo, we'll have our revenge!'

"So do you want explain what a boost scramble is Dysuke-kun?" Savouring Rina's attention for a moment Dysuke gave his cigarette a casual flick over his shoulder.

"Alright, alright. You know how you can control a turbo's boost pressure with an electronic controller? Well obviously you can't put too much boost into the engine or you risk blowing your turbo, or worse, your engine. In small doses though, even a large increase in boost can be fairly safe to run and give the car a huge increase in power and acceleration. That's what Takuya used to defeat Shouji; he waited until just the right time and then scrambled his boost setting for the straightaway to overtake. Sneaky, but it won us the battle."

Rina screwed her mouth to the side, unsure of whether she liked the sneaky part of the plan, but she didn't mind winning at all. All in all, if Takuya had used his brains to set his car up for the race, then it probably wasn't much worse than knowing when to overtake.

Kai kept his silence, astounded by the level of planning Takuya had shown in defeating the Night Kids. It served to reinforce the respect Takuya had won in earlier months and warn the second-generation racer. No way were the Night Kids going to let this one go… pretty soon, Kai knew, they have a rematch against that black GTR.

Anywhere but here, Kai hoped.


	11. Revenge of 380 Horsepower

_Got to say sorry Vanney-chan, but Tochigi's just existing a little too harmoniously for me, this isn't Gunma after all. There has to be some strong competition between the camps or it threatens to get all hippie-commune on us. But don't worry, leave it to Five Fire Flame to spread dissent like a plague._

* * *

**The Revenge of 380 Horsepower.**

"Mako-chan! How nice of you to come visit your busy uncle at work! Sometimes I think that you'd have forgotten all about me, and then you make an old man pleasantly wrong."

Satou Mako smiled and embraced her uncle, although in his late forties, he neither looked nor acted like much of an old man. Luckily she had six weeks holiday from work and she was planning on spending most of it in Tochigi with her uncle and aunt, generally relaxing, and maybe even practicing on some of the local passes. It wouldn't be bad to see Sodou Kyouichi in action on his home course after the battles he had had in the past with Takahashi Ryousuke and Fujiwara Takumi. Also, she could spend time with Miyoko and the rest of the members of Evo Prime, wait, that was Emperor Prime now. But beyond those trivialities she just wanted to relax and take her mind off work.

Back in the lecture hall Satou Mako and Satou Akiyama were disturbed from their catching up by the students beginning to file in for their weekly lecture. With a rueful smile to match any hopeful truant Mako's uncle bid her farewell.

"Well darling niece, I had best get to what I am paid to do. Rina and her boyfriend Kai are no doubt waiting for you. I will see you after the lecture and you can have the house keys from me and make yourself comfortable at home, while I slave away, breaking the shackles of ignorance in these young minds."

With a last laugh, she had always enjoyed spending time with her uncle, so carefree and witty, Mako saw herself off to meet with her youngest cousin, Rina, and her new (and quite often boasted) boyfriend.

Had she waited ten minutes outside the lecture theatre, she would have bumped into Nicolas Sainz.

Had he been on time, a rare, rare, occurrence, he would have bumped in to her.

"So Kai-san, Rina tells me that you had the chance to race Fujiwara Takumi on Irohazaka, the home course of Emperor Prime." This time around, Mako was conscious of new accurate phrasing and made use of it. "I raced him once, several years ago on my home pass of Usui. It helped me to define what I wanted from racing and where I wanted to be at the end of it. Did you go through a similar thing?"

Kai hadn't heard anything about that. Rina's cousin was supposed to be the fastest racer on Usui, and to lose. Damn that Fujiwara! What a glory-hound.

"Actually no I didn't. After my defeat on Irohazaka I really didn't have the motivation to race anymore. I mean, sure I beat that half-wit Iwaki from Emperor, but I don't know, I guess losing on what was supposed to be my home course to the wind out of me. I gave up targeting Sodou Kyouichi, I stopped driving dad's car so much… really if it wasn't for Rina, I probably wouldn't have ever gotten back into racing. If anyone is responsible for me knowing what I want from the mountains, then it is her." By the time Kai had finished, Rina was positively simpering with happiness, her cheeks absolutely glowing. But Kai continued on, a little more perplexed than before.

"But you mentioned Emperor Prime before, tell me something, Sodou hasn't merged his team with someone else's has he? That's not the kind of action I'd expect from him, with that pony-tailed ogre beside him, I never thought he'd be the kind to ask for someone's help, or give someone his own."

Wondering at the antagonism in the voice of Kogashiwa towards Seiji, but knowing that he had changed a lot in the past few months Mako thought she should respond to the young Tochigi racer's barbs, even if they weren't meant for her.

"Well he has merged his team with another, in a way, but you could say that he really just brought some members home." She waited for Kai's full attention before continuing. "You see, he and Iwaki Seiji had a personal disagreement and Seiji-san agreed to leave the team. In the months that followed, he, his brother, Ieyasu Miyoko and a gaijin friend of their's, Alex, formed a new team, Evo Prime, based in the Happogahara pass. It took a long time and a car accident but they made their amends and Sodou, impressed with the group Seiji-san had fostered, agreed to merge the two into one."

Mako hoped that she had imparted some sense of the growth that kind of situation would impart but, unperturbed, Kai idly circled one of his fingers in condensation formed by his glass of Pepsi. Frowning slightly he replied.

"So this Evo Prime, it has the backing of Ieyasu's fortune and Sodou's teaching? They sound like spoiled brats to me! I mean, with that sort of combination, they'd never have to worry about maintenance costs, or the price of petrol, or even learning what techniques work in what situations, all they need to do is take their payed for cars, shut up and listen to what Sodou tells them and they'd be ready to race. They're androids, not real racers."

For some reason, the idea of a whole privately funded team really irked Kai, maybe it was the sense of tradition instilled to him by his father or maybe it was the fact that he himself actually couldn't afford to buy his dad's SW20, yet. His voice had steadily grown, if not in volume, then in passion and intensity and Mako winced that they had mismanaged their first face-to-face conversation. Luckily, showing a depth of social insight most wouldn't have thought her capable of Satou Rina leapt to the aid of both her beloved boyfriend and her older and respected cousin.

"Hey, it's one o'clock, father will probably be waiting for us and Mako-chan will want to unpack her bags before we go out tonight, and we promised to meet Takuya as well"

Kai and Mako both understood the graceful out they had just been presented with and took it, relinquishing their argument and finishing their drinks in silence. Thank god, Rina silently thought, I won't have to knock Kai on the head for being rude today. Yet.

"You have a lot of potential Sainz-kun, but you need more dedication with your work. At the moment you might be scraping by with your smarts, but natural ability will never take the place of study and hard work." Of all the days for a personal harangue, it had to be the day he had a hangover. Although Nicolas Sainz thought, with more than a touch of irony, that was becoming harder and harder to avoid lately. Ever since Usui. "Now, I could quite easily report this to the Dean, but I have something else in mind. A parol officer." That if nothing else startled the young Spaniard. A parol officer? Since when was being late a crime? "That's right, if you'll wait with me for a few minutes, I have a young niece who is actually a teacher herself. I think that it would benefit you to meet with her once or twice a week, at her ease, to discuss your progress." Nicolas would have loved to rage to Satou-san's face, but the problem was, he knew he was in the wrong here. Besides, what could a young niece do? In all actuality, she was probably around the same age as Nicolas himself; training and racing with Toyota had left him unable, until now, to attend tertiary education. As it was, he barely went to high school. "Oh, here she is now, Mako-chan, can I speak to you quickly?"

Happogahara was rarely a peaceful place after dusk, but this particular night the local racers kept well off the roads and with good reason.

"There it is!"

Surging up the incline, 380 horsepower all trained in a perfect forward movement, a black R32 GTR made it's presence blatantly know. It was here that he, Nakazato Takeshi, team leader of the Myogi Night Kids, along with his offsider Shouji Shingo had first seen that new team, Five Fire Flame. If this was their home course, then he and his GTR would defeat them on it. He had been practicing most of the night, familiarising himself with the lay of the course. It was difficult, highly technical most of the time, but Nakazato knew that if he could get the cornering right, it was a course the GTR could dominate with it's supreme acceleration and ATTESA 4WD system.

"Look at that grip driving, even when Evo Prime were here, it's completely different to their style!"

ABS pumping, disks glowing from the rock-breaking grip of the callipers, Myogi's Black Lightning took the first of the four snake hairpins. Most inexperienced racers believed that 4WD hid flaws in the technique of a racer, that it improved them beyond their normal capabilities. That was only true to a point; while your average kid would probably be better in a 4WD than an FR or FF, a real racer had to work much harder to hold a 4WD to it's limits than a respective two-wheel drive. 4WDs were notoriously quirky, they required unique throttle and brake control to turn in properly and their limits were so high, and the driver inputs needed to hold them there so precise, that it took the very top echelon of drivers to be able race them properly. But piloted by a driver like Nakazato Takeshi, who had truly mastered the 4WD R32, who was able to use his brakes and throttle to negate understeer and turn in and who had learnt the necessary accelerator techniques to compromise between acceleration and line when cornering, they were monsters. Unrestrained, unsympathetic, monsters. In the hand's of the right driver, it was all but impossible to defeat a 4WD car on the mountains with a two-wheel drive car, and Nakazato Takeshi would prove it in Tochigi!

"Come out Five Fire Flame." Takeshi played the images of the Tochigi drivers in his head, the quite one and his girlfriend and the laughing one, apparently some local drifter of note, according to the RedSuns. He had gotten a call earlier that day from Nakamura Kenta telling him all about Nobutachi Dysuke. That was the one he wanted, the one he wanted to watch disappear into his rear view mirror. No one would have reason to laugh at the Myogi Night Kids ever again!

"Grip driving will always beat drift driving!"

The brakes again clamped down as the GTR entered the last of the snake hairpins. Most people would have trouble handling such a heavy car on a mountain pass, even with the added grip of 4WD, but Takeshi managed it with seeming ease. Anyone who had seen Nakazato race either Takahashi Keisuke or Iwaki Seiji would instantly see how much the Myogi hillclimb ace had improved he had spent the better part of two years working on his accelerator technique, practicing conserving his tires and masking the overweight nature of the GTR. There could be no flaw, no weakness or purchase for someone to take advantage of. Nakazato Takeshi had truly learnt from each of his defeats.

From the battle with Fujiwara, he learnt throttle control, never again would a boost spike defeat him.

From the battle with Takahashi, he learnt pacing and conservation, never again would he be able to fall back on the excuse of worn brakes and tires.

From the battle with Iwaki, he learnt to balance the weight of his car, using the techniques the two other losses had taught him to refine, he had defeated the main weakness of the GTR.

But most importantly of all, when Iwaki had given him back his team sticker several months ago, he had relearned his fighting spirit and faith in his car. The unbeatable track legacy of Japanese Group A racing.

Nakazato Takeshi had pure faith in his R.

Five Fire Flame would be defeated and the Night Kids would be avenged.

Tochigi would witness the power of Black Lightning.

* * *

_Well sports fans, it certainly appears as though Five Fire Flame has got one big black problem waiting impatiently in the wings doesn't it._

_I wonder if everyone is noticing the slight tendency towards villainy that FFF are starting to display. Thoughts? Observations and feedback? I mean, when the Night Kids are defeated, considering Kai's outburst towards Miyoko, it wouldn't be inconceivable for his to challenge Evo Prime (very careful with terminology here) to a race, while avoiding the furry of Sodou._

_Well one thing's for sure, Mako's had her holiday somewhat curtailed with her new duties towards our favourite GT4 driver. If everyone is expecting a lot of fluffy lovey dovey stuff between the two… you're in for a disappointment for a loooong time._

_To CelicaChick: about Ryousuke, don't expect to see a great deal of him in this story. He gets mentioned mainly through his association to Kyouichi, but I'd be lying if I said that the White Comet wouldn't be appearing again. Sainz has many lessons to learn, and there are very few people able to teach him. I mean, just thinking of drivers that could even pose a challenge to him…Tomo, Sodou and Ryousuke are the only names that come up at all… unless I bring in God's Hands and God's Feet from the manga, but I'd rather not. So you'll just have to keep reading to find out._

_Lastly, for a good laugh I recommend BoomChish's new 'Outranking the Emperor' short, especially if you like people getting knocked off their high-horse._

_Oh, just for curiosity's sake, would you guys mind telling me in your reviews who do you think would win in a battle between Emperor Prime from Follow the Leader and my own Five Fire Flame and how. The one race I don't really care about involves Sainz and Sodou, well Sainz and anybody, it's the other characters (Miyoko, Jin, Alex, Seiji and Kai, Rina, Takuya, Dysuke) that I'm interested in. I'd just like to get everyone's opinion's, your's too Vanney-chan, though you can tell me in person, since I owe you those scans of the Todou-Juku stuff for your eagerly anticipated continuation._


	12. The New Kings of Happogahara

_Well, let's take stock of the situation, Kai's got a little seed of jealousy building inside him towards Miyoko and Evo Prime in general, there's a black GTR hunting through Tochigi, no one's seen or heard from Dysuke or Takuya in a while (so they're probably up to more mischief) and Mako's the unpleasant assignment to watch over a manic-depressive Sainz._

_Another day, another dollar._

* * *

**The New Kings of Happogahara.**

"Oh, Rina-chan. Where's Kai?" As they often had in the three weeks since the Night Kids battle, Five Fire Flame met collectively on Happogahara to wile away their Friday night in a productive manner. You could never practice enough after all. The only problem was, they were not so collective at the moment.

"Kai's practicing at Irohazaka tonight, there were some things he wanted to check out alone." Again. Neither Takuya nor Dysuke said it, but they all heard it echo ominously between them. Kai had been a distant figure in the team since the arrival of Rina's cousin Mako, barely practicing with them at all and only participating superficially when he was there. The three remaining team members had each dealt with it in their own way. Dysuke lost his temper and complained, to Rina, to Takuya and to Ken-san, but made very little headway. So he buried himself in his Altezza and drove his tires to the belts. Rina tried to console Kai, as his girlfriend rather than his teammate, but even that had very little effect. It seemed Kai was too preoccupied for either. Takuya tried his best to stop a bad situation from turning worse, he kept the other two busy, on and off the road and he planned for the future.

Ohna Takuya had learned many interesting things in the past few weeks.

He did what he could, but most of the time it was too little to keep frayed nerves from getting the better of Rina and Dysuke. It didn't make it easier that they were barely talking to each other most of the time either. Maybe he should say something? But to who and about what? The details were so annoyingly hidden that even though a resolution screamed to be presented, it was beyond even Takuya's plots to grasp it. Hopefully the good news he had tonight would go a little way to restoring team faith.

"Well, I've made my inquiries and it's true, Evo Prime have pulled out of Happogahara and the course is now up for grabs." Inwardly he sighed when both his teammates looked up with interest, and something resembling hope in their eyes. Heartened, he forged ahead. "Of course, there are quite a few local racers here, but none of them have formed a team yet, and even so, I doubt that they'd be in our league." Again, he paused to watch the information be absorbed. "So, it begs the question; has Five Fire Flame found a home course of our own?" One, two, three…

They didn't disappoint. Holding hands and cheering like school-kids, their apparent quarrel forgotten for the moment, Nobutachi Dysuke and Satou Rina performed what Takuya could only assume to be the traditional dance of whatever magical leprechauns they'd made a habit of idolising as children. Dysuke turned to Takuya, a thumb pointing to his heart.

"Happogahara, home course of Five Fire Flame!"

Beside him, clapping excitedly, Rina added the obligatory, that sounds so cool, before hugging both of them and the tension within the three present members refrigerated to little more than room temperature. Well, that was good news, but real work had to be done.

"Okay, okay, I'm glad you guys like it, but now we get to the serious end of the deal. To truly claim this course as our home course, we have to beat the existing time attack records for the course as Evo Prime laid them down; and that will be no easy task. You see, there is no uphill and downhill here, in both directions the course has fairly regular changes in inclination. The course is tight and treacherous in the first and fourth stages, whereas the second and third are wide with many possible lines for attack. This course, while being amazing to drive on, immediately disadvantages all of us compared to the last home team. We don't have Lancer Evolutions that can thrive in any kind of environment. Rina, with it's small displacement naturally aspirated engine, your ZW30 has always been a strict downhiller until now. Dysuke, you've never worried about this kind of tight cornering before, you've always been able to rely on high-speed drift and the power of your Altezza. As for me, my EP82 will hate the uphill corners and I know it, off boost it's going to be very hard to keep up competitive speed and there is only one or two significant straights to open up the new Boost Scramble. The only one of us who has an ideal car for Happo is Kai, and well…" He's not here, is he?

Clearly goaded to have both Kai and his own driving weaknesses brought up in such a bald way, Dysuke fired back.

"So what are you saying Ohna, that it'd be better if we stayed off the course?"

Rina screwed her mouth to the side in what was quickly becoming the give away trait that she was either thinking or upset. Please be thinking, please be thinking, please be thinking. Takuya was about to open his mouth to retort when Rina answered for him, and answered his prayers.

"But if we learn and know what we lack, and what our cars lack, can't we then change it and adapt? It's like when you raced Shouji Shingo, you knew the difference between your cars, so you put on your special tires and got your boost scrambler… we could do the same couldn't we?" Every day Takuya found more and more reason to be impressed with that young woman, she had just taken the words right out of Takuya's mouth… and then, grinning, had motivated a somewhat sullen Dysuke, more effectively than a dozen inspirational speeches ever could have.

"Bet you I can learn faster than you can Dysuke-kun!" Responding immediately with feigned, but only barely, indignation, Dysuke mock ran for his car. Seeing this, Rina shrieked, as though each second might decide the winner in their private contest and made for her own car. "Oh no you don't!" And the with blasts of exhaust and tire smoke, they were gone, leaving Takuya to scratch his chin and wonder if they'd bother to think about warming their cars up. Oh well, at least they're happy, they're like kids in that way, they can be angry with each other one moment and completely infatuated the next.

The thought would have made Takuya quirk an eyebrow, infatuated was actually a perfected word for them, but something distracted him.

The roar of an RB26.

The battle cry of Nakazato Takeshi.

Emperor, Evo Prime, Emperor Prime, whatever you wanted to call them had finally left Irohazaka for the night and Kogashiwa Kai made the most of their absence. This was the night. He'd been practicing nearly ever day on Iro to get to this point. To get back to where he had been prior to his battle with Fujiwara, and now it was make or break. As he slowly eased his father's car to the starting line he glanced down at his stopwatch. He had been so close last night, less than a second off his best time, and tonight he wouldn't hold back. His father had told him that much earlier in the day.

"_You can't expect to advance if you are unwilling to risk yourself Kai, your technique, your car, even your life. If you push yourself to the edge of the knife, push yourself until it cuts you, over and over again, eventually you build a callous and the knife becomes harmless. It is the same with racing, enduring all the dangers you encounter, you will be stronger for it… you know exactly what needs to be done, you better have the guts to do it if you want to get better."_

"Okay, go!" Bringing the revs to six thousand RPM, Kogashiwa Kai released the clutch and quickly shifted through the gears on redline to speed down the initial straight of Nikko's most dangerous of passes: Irohazaka. Taking the tires to their absolute maximum purchase on the asphalt, Kai used his left foot on the brake to eliminate understeer, while his right foot continued to control the level of acceleration. Despite the fact that his engine was nearly stock, his downhill assault easily exceed that of much more powerful cars, it was obvious that tonight's run would meet his expectations.

"_There is a certain line factor that comes in to effect on Irohazaka after you reach a certain amount of corners…"_

"_Are you crazy dad? There's no way I'll do that, I won't be responsible for the damage to the car!"_

"_Listen, by allowing your opponent to get ahead, and then overtake, it's like a K.O. win…"_

He had used it on Fujiwara Takumi and he would use it again on anyone who thought to race him; the trump card of the Irohazaka downhill. Kogashiwa Kai would use it at the first place possible, the 33rd corner. Relying on honed instincts rather than his logical mind, because, let's face it, purposefully leaping off a cliff face was anything but logical, he turned the nose in early, angled the tail out and regained grip in the rear tires at precisely the right moment. It looked easy, frightfully easy, but if his timing was disrupted in any one part for less than a second, a complete totalling of his dad's car was the best-case scenario. But racing was in Kogashiwa's blood and the young man had cut his teeth on motorbikes and karts, he launched and landed true on turn 33, and again after that, and again twice more after that. Foot held to the floor he hit the first bridge, the second, finally the third and quickly lunged for his stopwatch.

Three seconds? Three seconds! He had just beaten his previous time by a sliver more than three whole seconds, not only did that smash his personal best but it probably put him in contention for the downhill record on Irohazaka even against Emperor…

Emperor Prime…

Ieyasu Miyoko…

A smile spread across Kogashiwa Kai's face, it was far more sinister than pleasant.

His father would have been proud.

Preoccupied Satou Mako sipped her coffee at the University café, waiting for her assigned subordinate. So much for a holiday then, listening to her uncle and watching the speed at which the young man made his exit, made it obvious that to her that this was going to absorb a great deal of her once free time. Although… although he was interesting. Here was someone, not a year older than her, who she'd seen outrun her on Usui with seeming ease, who was a apparent friend of Takahashi Ryousuke, and yet no one she had spoken to ever remembered seeing a foreign driver in a Celica during the reign of the White Comet. Then there were the tears, what had ever happened on Usui to make him so upset… and then to suddenly close over when Sayuki entered the conversation…

It was odd. He was odd.

Sure was good looking though.

Mako blushed, unused to finding a random man attractive, and at that moment, Nicolas Sainz, unaware that he was the cause of such an endearing response chose to sit down opposite her. He looked different. Exhausted. The lines on his face were incredibly prominent and under his eyes were large bruised bags. He had a five o-clock shadow and his hair was loose and dishevelled. He gently rubbed his temples as though he had a headache and placed his Coke on the table. Mako glanced at her watch as her cheeks returned to their normal shade.

"You're late."

Nicolas Sainz scowled.

Satou Rina lookedand saw the road around her suddenly illuminate. Quickly risking a glance in her rear-view mirror, shesaw somethingcoming up behind her, something big, black and powerful.

In the cabin of the GTR Nakazato Takeshi smiled and stepped down on the accelerator. The familiar thump of the twin turbo RB26 felt like a homecoming. Exiting this corner, the race would be on.

"Small fry."

* * *

_Oh wow. Five Fire Flame are in deep trouble and their two best drivers aren't in the picture! That's a problem._

_Oh, CelicaChick, the Zero Counter drift is a by-product of rally. Essentially it is a 4WD specific drift where there is no set counter-steering phase like an FR (who turn in and then hold a counter steer angle), it happens when inertia pulls the tail of the car out and the driver needs to spin all four wheels to control the under and oversteer of the car and keep the proper out-in-out line. The main difference besides the lack of counter steering to a normal drift is the speed at which it is done… it's fast, very fast, almost as fast as proper grip driving (because mainly, it is how rally drivers keep their cars going fast through corners when they can't keep it straight.)._

_The boost scramble is a part of certain electronic boost controllers, basically it is a button that allows a driver to push more boost through the turbo for a little while to give them a little more power and acceleration. It's something more commonly used on Wangan, or highway racing, in Japan for overtaking but some people have theorised a use for it on the mountain roads… Takuya was one of them!_

_Hope that explained it some._

_Okay to my readers, you've a choice for the next chapter, battle or mischief from a surprise guest star… you're choice on which gets done first…_

_I'm evil I know._


	13. Counter Attack

_Hello, well for those who couldn't decide between battle and a guest star... get both hehehe, I just wanted to sweat you all._

_Oh for those of you who love BoomChish's work... go to her homepage to find the first chapters of her great new story, Oh Brother Where Art Thou? another Evo Prime story... it's got my seal of approval_

* * *

Counter Attack.

"He's insufferable Miyoko! I've never met someone as arrogant as him! He never turns up on time and it's obvious that he barely works in the course and he won't take any advice whatsoever! He's going to fail, I know it. He's going to fail and that's completely fine with him!"

Sitting in her favourite chair with her forehead propped up by a palm Ieyasu Miyoko tried to recount the conversation she just been shackled into. Hi Mako, how are you? How's the cute little pupil? Maybe it was the innuendo that did it… damn, no quick way out now. The only option left was just to bear with the repercussions.

"How did he get as far as he did with racing? He has no will to succeed whatsoever! I don't know why he even bothers at all! Oh he's so damn infuriating!"

Why so infuriating Mako? You remind me of someone… where have I heard some other girl complain so much about another arrogant ass of a man? Oh wait, now I remember…

"You know Mako, I've never heard of a guy getting to you this much… not even that Speed Stars guy, whatever his name was. Maybe there's something you're not telling me…" Miyoko smirked silently to herself as she heard her friend's angry denial. "Why don't you tell me what he looks like… black hair, blond like Alex?" Let's see if she takes the bait.

Hmmm, brunette huh? Long hair, well that's always a plus. Tanned skin, light brown almost amber eyes, exotic, trimmed goatee, tall, well… oh Mako, you poor thing, you're doomed. There's just something about the jerks isn't there? They're just irresistible, especially when there's a real nice guy behind all the machismo.

"So… why not just tell your uncle, he'll fail him and you get your holiday back?" He he, nothing like baiting one of your friends to improve your mood. Just a slight change in tone, a slight gasp of shock or indignation, that'd make it more than worth it.

Please Mako, just a little one?

"I couldn't do that Miyoko! Everyone deserves a chance… besides… he's not all bad…"

Yes! Perfect!

"So when are you going to meet him next?" Miyoko asked, mock frustration masking a much deeper motivation. The end of the week? His lecture is today? Give… him… one week to work. Excellent!

"Mako, I just remembered I have to pick up Alex from University, his Evo's getting serviced, do you mind if I ring you when I get back… we can organise dinner Friday then okay?"

Hanging up her handset Miyoko, a card-carrying member of Emperor Prime, made for the kitchen. She did have to go to Uni, but not for anything to do with Alex, who was actually outside washing Sparky. Miyoko was making that trip for one reason… to start a fire.

Today, he'd make the plunge today. After the complete disaster at Happogahara four weeks ago he knew something had to be done to strengthen his team. Kai and Rina were now both M.I.A. on Irohazaka and try as they might he and Dysuke alone couldn't really inspire the necessary awe and respect from the locals to hold the pass. They needed reinforcements. Dysuke didn't even have his car, it was in at Ken Works with unspecified engine problems stemming from the battle with the Night Kids GTR. Originally he had thought of asking Dysuke to work on Rina's older brother Ken, but that wasn't really fair… using a semi-pro driver to prop up Five Fire Flame. Takuya knew he'd have to go the hard way and recruit more people on the street level. Maybe, he despaired, he'd even have to start accepting non-Toyota cars into the team. Bah, he thought, I'll see where today takes me and just pick up the pieces from there. So he walked into his education lecture, making sure to be at least twenty minutes late, mumbled an apology to Satou-san and made for the back of the class. In the back corner there was a few conspicuously empty chairs around one fellow student. Dysuke's target, the guy he had seen wearing racing sneakers and pit shirts from Advan and Rays Engineering. In short, Nicolas Sainz.

"Hey how you doing?" He got a nod in response.

"I miss anything important?" He got a shake of the head.

Real talkative guy, by the looks.

Takuya though, always on the ball, was determined to provoke a two-way conversation and was certain he had the ammunition to do it. Ready… aim…

"So what'd you do for Satou-sensei to let you hang out with that niece of his? The two of you engaged or something?"

"Sainz-kun, is the something wrong? You look starved for air."

In complete shock Nicolas Sainz had choked on his words, or nods, or whatever, and had begun coughing in fits. Forced to hold his side in silent laughter, Takuya was useless to help or hush him. Waving as best he could, Nicolas assured their lecturer he was… well, alive if nothing else. Engaged to Satou Mako? You must be kidding, he did have some pride. The last thing he wanted was someone force-feeding him for the next half a century… would she tuck him in to bed, fearing that he couldn't do it himself, or make sure to be in the shower with him for fear… no… bad thoughts, wrong thoughts… Sainz scowled at Takuya as if he were the root of all evil.

"No, we're not engaged, Satou slapped me with her as a parol officer for turning up late too many times." Clearly impressed, Takuya nudged Sainz in the ribs.

"So what you're telling me is to keep turning up late and I'll get to be around her all the time? Cool, thanks for the advice." Barely impressed, the gaijin rolled his eyes and stopped them on the black board with a studied expression of distaste and boredom. While Takuya made notes on anything important, Sainz's arms didn't budge from his chest where they were crossed for the whole lecture. He barely blinked, his breathing didn't fluctuate, he was still as statue and about as interesting for the entire two hour lecture. When it was over, and Satou dismissed the class, he just picked up and left with the same flippant ease. It took Takuya a moment to grab his books and hurry after… besides they were parked right beside each other.

"Small fry."

Stepping down on the gas hard, his R32 GTR Skyline rocketed forward, nearly bumping the rear bar of the ZW30. This was the first section of Happogahara with lots of consecutive hairpins and short straightaways. Although he knew he probably could overtake by tightening his exit and using his Skyline's 380 horsepower and 4WD to power past, Nakazato Takeshi waited it out. He knew the trick to overtaking now… it was all down to the perfect moment. That moment where the opponent showed a fatal weakness and there was no opportunity to fight back. It would come on the final corner before the second sector, the high-speed sector. He thought back to his last major battle on Myogi, against Iwaki Seiji and his Evo 4. He had cut the inside of a high-speed corner when the 32 understeered and immediately distanced the two cars. Takeshi had run afoul of a concrete retaining wall trying to vainly gain distance on the straight. The weakness had been presented and exploited to the point where there was no opportunity for a normal driver to recover. Oh yes, Nakazato Takeshi remembered that battle very well. It was just another lesson in perfecting the art of street racing.

"Come on Five Fire Flame let's see your cornering first hand."

She was quick, but nothing too impressive, Shingo was much faster, he wouldn't have been worried. She controlled her midship well, which was surprising. He knew a few racers with MR layout and none of them tried to drift… especially not in a battle. There was no doubt she had engaged in the dogfight either, the pace had increased and she had tried to block the GTR on the straights be taking the centre of the road. Not that it mattered, when the time was right, nothing would matter except the sound of spooling and the bellow of the RB26.

Right hairpin.

Nakazato pressured the inside, clearly giving it priority. The MRS responded with a predictable blocking line and kept the right-hand side… the dead traffic side. Grinning, Myogi's Black Lightning pressed down on the accelerator, released it and repeated the process in conjunction with precise steering control to control the 1600 kilograms of the Nissan Skyline as it pulled to the outside. The manoeuvre relied on the grip of the tires but it worked and got the Skyline on the outside of ZW30. Rina knew she was in trouble, even on such a short straight that giant GTR had to have an advantage. She stepped down on the gas and let it rev out well into the redline, hopping to cling onto at least the Skyline's doors… if she could do that then she could take the lead again on the next right-hand hairpin. Come on, what did Kai say about entering corners… brake late, shift quick and turn in!

Okay, go!

"Got you." Rina swept into the hairpin with last minute braking getting ahead by less than a car length. Takeshi's headlight's swerved from outside right to inside left as Rina cornered from left to right.

"The GTR disappeared?"

With her inexperience Rina couldn't know that Nakazato had just played her to take the inside. With her inexperience Rina couldn't know that Nakazato had styled his counter attack on the downhill attack of an eighteen-year-old school kid.

Nakazato Takeshi won the inside and with 380 horsepower being put to the ground through all four wheels he blasted by Rina's MRS as though it weren't moving.

Rina lost.

"Time for the Altezza."

Nobutachi Dysuke glanced at his rear-view mirror, trying to gauge if Rina had caught up at all in the tight first section.

"Huh?" She was breathing down his neck… no… wait that wasn't a ZW30… that was a Silvia or maybe a Skyline. What was going on? Where was Rina and who was this?

Oh shit!

Exiting the corner Dysuke stepped on the gas, trying to get some distance on the other car, but succeeded in doing nothing more than needlessly spinning his rear tires. The Skyline made a grab for the inside but Dysuke quickly managed to cut him off.

"Oh no you don't, this is my home course now and I won't let anybody push me around!"

The Altezza was lighter, but only by a little, and it was FR. The Skyline was obviously the 4WD, so it held it's weight much better, and it was much more powerful. Damn it, come on Altezza, don't let me down! Even as he thought the thought he was forced to take a blocking line down the centre of the road to keep the guy behind him. God damn it, what could he possibly do? Nothing on the straight, but weren't there 4 or 5 switching hairpins up ahead? Yeah right after each other too! He just had to thump through really good corners one after the other and he'd be able to hold the lead until the end of the course. Scare the hell out of the other driver with a completely fearless entry and it was over. Well that was something Nobutachi Dysuke could do on demand.

There was a right hairpin, although he didn't know it, the first of the four snake hairpins.

Not yet, not yet, not yet….

Now!

Swerving from left to right and quickly back again, Dysuke let the back end slide and held it, drifting well before the corner, sending up plumes of smoke. None of his teammates would have been able to tail him through that. He deliberately bogged the revs down to keep traction at the apex of the corner and then brought them back up to exit.

"Hmmm, so much for 4WD! What's the big deal then? He hasn't even hit the corner yet!"

Yellow GT4… Yellow GT4… Yellow… yes! Wow! As a member of Evo Prime she'd seen some well tuned cars, even battled the Todou-Juku demo car on Happogahara and this Celica was tuned to at least that same level. It looked intense, plain and simple, just intense, almost like a real rally car. Hang on… Kei Office? That means this car was tuned by Tsuchiya-san himself! Wow, how much horsepower would it have and how would the suspension be set up? It'd be great to see this car in action… no, not yet, after… it'd be enough fun just setting this guy and Mako into a complete head spin for now.

It would be impossible to miss him, a gaijin in Tochigi… well if it wasn't Alex, then it obviously had to be the guy. There… talking to a local racer and smoking a cigarette. Brunette alright, shoulder length hair tied back into a ponytail that just seemed to tickle the back of his neck. The tanned skin, the amber eyes, all there… Mako definitely had good taste, now that she had gotten away from that Iketani. All she needed was a none to gentle push in the right direction to keep the ball rolling. She brought her Evo VII to a casual halt, blocking off several parked cars without a thought. Plastering a counterfeit innocent look on her face she approached the pair, cursing smokers in general as she encountered a wreath of second-hand smoke and caught a snippet of their conversation.

"…not my fight. Maybe there are some good drivers around here but it's not my business to get involved in their squabbles."

"Who said anything about squabbles… we're just talking practicing and doing time trails in a friendly group environment. Is there anything wrong with that? Together as a team we can push each other much harder than someone can alone."

"Well…" as she closed the distance between Ieyasu Miyoko noticed a slight softening in his voice… as if the offer did genuinely tempt him, but the moment was gone in a heartbeat as he became aware of her presence.

Miyoko could almost feel her face split in half with an intended honey-sweet smile to lessen the young man's, and he couldn't have been more than a year or two older than her, defences. She got an indifferent nod in return.

An indifferent nod?

Not even Sodou Kyouichi, her team leader, ignored her to such a degree! She got a glare or a smile, something; this was just a look of utter disinterest seeping from his every pore. For some reason it made her feel rather small.

Unimportant.

She continued to smile regardless and made her voice as pleasant as possible.

"Hey, you're Nicolas, right. Mako's tutoring you in education right?" She barrelled on in the face of his nod.

"Oh, I thought so, listen, you know that Mako's twenty-third birthday is in a few days, right? Well I'm thinking of taking her to coffee Friday afternoon and then taking her from there to her party, so I was wondering if you could speed up your tutorial with her, she's really excited, who could blame her, but she doesn't want to be rude. You'll be at the party anyway, so…"

Miyoko noted with some private glee, the confusion and worry in the man's eyes.

Hook, line and sinker.

"Birthday?"

I didn't know anything about a birthday…

"That's the problem with drifting…" Nakazato Takeshi chuckled to himself whilst slowly pressing the accelerator down. The 4WD Attesa system worked perfectly pulling Black Lightning up alongside the white Toyota Altezza on the inside, which would become the outside on the next and, if it came to that, the inside for the final of the four hairpins. It was over.

Stubborn as ever though Nobutachi Dysuke realized on his instincts and the power of his engine for the next hairpin, but even with the inside they remained dead even through the corner and the Skyline gained a lead exiting.

Don't pass me, stay back there, stay back there!

There was one big concussion blast and a sudden loss of power…

Black Lightning left him for dead.

_So much for drift then._

* * *

Well now, I hope you guys and girls enjoy it.

Seak... thanks for your review, I hope you like the new chapter, I try to put as much technical knowledge in it as possible without boring people to death so it always does my heart good when people like it. I've tried breaking the paragraphs up a bit more too, in the hope that it'll become easier to follow.

BoomChish, just so you know, our conversation the other night was very inspiring, I hope you took as much away from it as I did.

When do we get to see another chapter of your story by the way? ;-)


	14. Intermission

**Intermission.**

_It's been a while I know, but I've been busy with Uni and my own car so I really haven't had the time to work on this. Anyway, this isn't a full chapter... it's just a short intermission to usher in the changing of the story's pace._

The blue MR2 sailed through the Grand Curve of Myogi with ease, making his way to the peak at a relaxed pace. No point giving away a true indication of his skill when he wasn't here to race. He was here for Rina; he was here for Five Fire Flame.

Revenge for Five Fire Flame.

There was a carpark, several cars had gathered… but where was the… there! Parked just around the entrance alone was the black BNR32 Skyline. The car that had destroyed both Rina and Dysuke; Myogi's Black Lightning. Showing more confidence than he felt, the young Nikko native turned in the same small driveway and blocked off the Skyline with a jab of the brakes and a squeal of tires. He waited until he knew all the gathered racers would be paying attention to him and then exited his car, adjusted his leather jacket till it sat comfortably and turned his attention to the Night Kids.

"Nakazato Takeshi?"

A man with closely cut black hair, a prominent glare and way too much eyeliner stepped forth. With supreme confidence he smirked and crossed his arms over his chest.

"That's me. You're from Five Fire Flame right?"

Kai nodded.

"Go home Tochigi boy, the Night Kids settled our score on Happogahara and unless my maths is seriously wrong, two wins against your team on your home course beats our one loss on Myogi." Kogashiwa Kai glared bitterly at the GTR driver.

"The races on Happogahara don't count, it's true that that's our new home course, but you caught us on our first week! You want to beat Five Fire Flame on our home course, then I'll be waiting on Irohazaka, Saturday at 10pm."

With that he turned, re-entered his car, reversed onto the asphalt and left with a squeal of tires.

* * *

"No, Juro-san that's perfect! I'm sick of that little shrew on our team and the way everybody bows down to her and her schoolyard friends."

"No, the inside definitely, I've been watching her technique closely for weeks now and if you put the oil on the inside of the corner, she'll spin out and crash into the guardrail, but it won't be too bad. She'll get scared and she'll have a totalled car… in other words, she'll be out of racing for a long time to come!

"Excellent! She's the only person on our team set for time attack this weekend, so it's guaranteed to work."

"Okay, I'll meet with you after the team practice and pay you as promised"

* * *

Takuya stood with his hands behind his head struggling to absorb what he was staring at. When asked him for a lift to Ken Works he had no idea that it would've led in this direction.

"The turbo blew…. apparently the wastegate got stuck and it overboosted, so when I hit the accelerator…" Dysuke trailed off, all racers knew the horrible results of pushing too much boost throw a turbo and engine. "Originally I was going to ask Ken-san to rebuild it but… truthfully I've begun to feel the limitations of a single turbo engine in an FR car. When I was drifting I could use the kick of the boost to push the car sideways but doing that now makes me too slow and when I was driving Happo I noticed for the first time just how laggy my car was. It's time for a change, I want something that can compete with the Skyline GTR and I think this is it."

Takuya looked at the piece of metal in front of him, trying to gauge if it was on par to the job at hand. Certainly it had been done in the past, but on a mountain pass like Happogahara?

Whatever else happened, this was going to be interesting.

* * *

Satou Mako, her co driver Sayuki and their close friend Ieyasu Miyoko slowly sipped their drinks, gossiped light-heartedly, surveyed the opposite sex around them and generally partook of all the activities females found amusing in their spare time until slowly but surely a source of discord wound it's way between them. Or, to be more specific, towards them.

He looked horrible, if such a thing was possible. Big bags under his eyes, his hair was curled and dishevelled and there was a week old beard over his cheeks and chin. He cut a straight path for the girls with a small parcel in his hand, wrapped in brown paper.

"Mako-chan, sorry to interrupt you all." A small smile, almost conspiratorial in nature, worked it's way on to the faces of Sayuki and Miyoko. Mako just looked confused. "Sorry, to interrupt you, it's just that since your birthday is tomorrow and I thought I'd make your day a bit easier." He placed the package on table in front of them, spun it one hundred and eighty degrees and pushed it towards Mako.

"An entire semester's work… you can give it to Satou-san… no need to tutor me anymore…" he paused "Happy Birthday


	15. The Razor's Edge

**The Razor's Edge.**

_Well I'm back with another instalment of my story, I hope everyone enjoys it._

_This is what a **researched, well-written battle should look like.**_

* * *

The automotive collective known as Emperor Prime, comprising of members of the veteran Emperor LanEvo corp. and their younger Evo Prime counterparts, were greeted rudely by another local racer. Such interruptions were not common during their team meetings... most of the locals had enough sense to steer clear of them. Not Kogashiwa though. Leading his fledgling team into the carpark he pulled to a halt with his customary locking of brakes.

'Boy that kid must go through some tires, driving like that' the team's leader Sodou Kyouichi thought to himself. He'd been hearing about this Five Fire Flame a lot lately, they'd be entrenched with the Night Kids from Myogi for a few weeks now but aside from that, they'd be courting several prominent independent racers... and one of their members Ohna Takuya had quite a reputation from Saitama. What were they coming up here for though? From all reports they'd taken to Happogahara as their home course and had suffered a dramatic lose at the hands of the Night Kids leader Nakazato Takeshi... there's no way they'd be coming to challenge Emperor Prime considering that three or four of their active members could obviously dissect them.

If not that, then what?

Goddamn nuisance no matter what!

By the looks of it Miyoko's time trial would have to wait.

There was another collective gurgle of engines and suddenly the panorama view of Mt Irohazaka seemed very crowded. A familiar black R32 led in a larger group of assorted cars... the Myogi Night Kids. In years gone by, during the Emperor invasion of Gunma, the LanEvo Corp had defeated Black Lightning and defaced the Night Kids team sticker. Seiji had sported his 'kill marks' for more than two years, only taking them down recently when he had formed a friendship with the same man he had defeated. Hopefully therefore the Night Kids weren't coming for revenge... racing or physical... as it was they outnumbered the Emperor members. A small knot of worry formed in the Emperor leader's throat. He had no idea what was going on. Luckily Kogashiwa stepped forward to clear up the mess. He showed his usual contempt for Seiji with a sneer, though admirably, Seiji barely blinked in return, his younger brother Jin was hardly as polite.

"Don't worry, we're not here to mess around with you guys tonight. Tonight we've got buisness with the Night Kids. One downhill race and we'll be out of your hair. Hell, we'll even let you watch!" Kyouichi smiled, that kid's got some guts; no one could dispute that, being so arrogant to the local team with only a girl and two guys at his back.

Takeshi had also exited his car and looked on intensely, awaiting the outcome of their interaction.

Kyouichi mulled the proposal over; it was well within his power to shut this race down, or at least delay it until after the time trail... it was easy to see Miyoko was getting impatient. Well, it would do her good to see the cornering speeds a non-4WD could pull off, she was starting to get a little arrogant in her treatment of racers with supposedly inferior drivetrains. Alright then... let's see how this Five Fire Flame has influenced young Kogashiwa.

"Alright then... Kogashiwa's SW20 vs. Nakazato's R32? Sounds like fun. Why not?" Kyouichi noted with some frustration that Miyoko's fists and jaw clenched upon hearing the pronouncement. He wasn't the only one to catch it either, Kogashiwa looked straight at her, stared as though she were about to burst into flame... because he doused her with petrol and lit it.

That was strange.

The tension flowed away as soon Takeshi started bellowing order to his teammates, right along with Kyouichi's eardrums.

'Interesting friends you have there Seiji, I think I'd rather train with Todou-san again for five years and have him getting on my case about every little detail than drive with this guy... Todou-san wouldn't eat your firstborn kids.' All thoughts aside, Nakazato's Night Kids were very effective. As Five Fire Flame only had a total of four members they couldn't really manage the race. Nakazato sent out Night Kids' members to most of the gallery spots to report back the progress of the race. Speaking of pride and courage, Nakazato sure had some himself, agreeing to a downhill race, on Irohazaka of all places, with a heavy GTR.

"Kyouichi-san... I think I'll be going now. If there's going to be a battle, before we even get to the time trails... yeah, I think I'll get out of here." Satake... well that was nothing new. Since Miyoko joined the team, he'd been taking any chance to leave team meets early. Tonight, he seemed extra nervous though... maybe he had a date. The Emperor leader looked his subordinate up and down with a glance. Yep, and maybe hell was about to freeze over. Well, it couldn't be helped, when all was said and done, his team members did have lives outside of racing, and Kyouichi had to acknowledge that.

"Yeah Satake, get out of here... we'll tell you how things went next time." He laughed as Satake nearly ran to his car. Maybe that date wasn't too far fetched an idea after all.

Standing in between a R32 GTR and an SW20 preparing to launch, most people would have been intimidated. Ohna Takuya carried himself with an ease born solely of familiarity. Raising one arm high he prompted an increase in both cars revving as they prepared to launch.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!"

Kai launched hard, knowing he had no chance of getting ahead of the GTR, but needing to keep the gap between them to a minimum for his eventual counter attack. The GTR still surged ahead, putting meters of distance between them with incredible acceleration. In his cabin Kai gripped his steering wheel hard... the key to this battle was going to be multiple braking duels. Coming into the first hairpin as the GTR exited it, Kai machine-gun shifted into second, then, with left foot braking turned his car in and exited the hairpin. He looked up at the Skyline. Yes, he'd definitely closed some space, maybe ten or twenty meters! Nakazato was good, he braked hard, using the full potential of his ABS and shifted the weight of his car to minimize any understeer... the style of downhill cornering relied on his tires, but it was effective. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, there was no modification that could even a large difference in weight... not even 4WD. As the hairpins came more and more common and the straights slacked off in length, Kai had managed to destroy the lead and had begun tailgating Nakazato. Surprisingly, the pressure didn't phase the Night Kids leader, he maintained his pace and line, allowing the acceleration of the Skyline to distance them at corner exits and the width of the car to do his blocking for him. It would be impossible to squeeze any car inside or outside without hitting the guardrail. It was one of the difficulties of Irohazaka, most of the time the car the led into the hairpins would win unless it was severely underpowered in the final section. Kai was behind AND underpowered... so normally he'd have nearly no chance at winning this battle.

'When dad first told me told me about the Special Line Factor here on Irohazaka, I didn't understand. Sure, I knew that there was a great possibility for an pass on the leading car... but all I could see was the danger, to the car and to myself." He paused his internal dialogue to send the car with supreme neutrality, the hallmark of speed, through another hairpin, tailing the GTR closely. His eyes narrowed on the car ahead, upping the pressure with by holding onto the accelerator like a maniac, not pausing when the bumps in the road jostled him and his car about.

"Now I now the secret. The true nature of it. It's the finest razorblade technique on any mountain. Using it, with the right timing, acceleration... the line taking down to an art... a human racer could transcend everything around him... and for one split second, become a god." He shifted into fourth, holding the acceleration for a moment as he approached his line and counted off his braking and turn-in point.

"I can see the SW20, burning into my line from behind. He cut's close on entry, I'm fighting with understeer and weight while he is almost totally neutral. I pull away too quickly on exit to be overtaken there and the road is too narrow to cut inside me, so even if he's faster than me here, once we reach a high-speed section, I'll leave him behind. This battle is as good as won." Nakazato noted the distinctive sloped headlights of the MR2 slowly fade from his rear-view mirror as they accelerated out of another hairpin in second and then third. He paused as the headlights again caught up at braking. "So why does it feel like he's about to try something?"

Three people stood in the galleries overlooking one of the repeated hairpins of the Irohazaka pass, one talking on the phone, two standing silent side by side. The young witness talking on the phone relayed racing information to the summit.

"I can here the noise from the engines and tires. They can't be far off." The tone of their voice carried their excitement clearly and when the headlights of the racers suddenly appeared it reached a high screech. "Here! The GTR is leading, but the SW20 is charging in behind them, they're approaching the hairpin at incredible speeds! Here we go, it's down to a breaking duel! The GTR's moving outside, wow, it's really pumping the ABS hard! The SW20's staying inside, it's breaking's almost criminal! They're coming into the corner now!..."

From the summit of Mt Irohazaka Shouji Shingo heard squealing tires, screaming from a woman's throat and the sound of things... going wrong.

The sapphire SW20 dove into entry braking with an act of supreme courage and insanity, locking the rear wheels with the handbrake and swinging the tail round to the exit... before it even reached the corner!

Kogashiwa Kai was going to jump the corner!

"Go...?" Even as the words leapt out of Kai's mouth he knew something was wrong. He couldn't control the slide! Knowing he was doomed if he didn't try and stop the car. Turning with the spin and almost simultaneously using the foot and hand brakes to try something... ANYTHING to pull him up. He felt the car jostling and the wheels pumping up and down as the car skated down over the uneven earth. The GTR swung around the corner and narrowly missed the wildly sliding car, immediately stopping after the corner and leaping from his car to see the Toyota MR2 crumple into guardrail, sending glass and shrapnel spraying into the gallery as onlookers leapt out of the way.

Kogashiwa Kai looked around in a daze... he'd survived.

His head hit the steering wheel with a solid thud.

"Rina..."

* * *

_Ouch. That's all I can say... ouch._


	16. Begin the Begin

_Well I'm back finally, better to be late than never and better to conserve your energy to use on something you like than waste it on something slap-dashed together in a hurry._

_Originally this chapter was going to be much different, but due to unforseen reviews and annoyances I decided to change it and much of the stories ending and final message. _

_Such is life._

* * *

**Begin the Begin.**

"So this is where you've been hiding yourself the past few months Sainz-kun." Showing the confidence only a graduate possessed, Sudou Kyouichi strolled into the garage area of the notorious Todou Firm tuning shop. He found what he was told to suspect; a blue SW20, newly repaired and receiving a final service at the hands of both Sainz himself and the young, recently graduated Sakai from the Todou Juku, who also happened to be a fulltime mechanic at the firm. Accompanying the pair, though only managing to be a hindrance was Ieyasu Miyoko. She was siddling around Sainz and Sakai, directing a torrent of questions and opinions towards the pair about their months of solid and industrious work.

And what a time it had been.

Emperor Prime was no more and to reduce the copious amounts of tension in the team, Kyouichi had been forced to use his connections to move Miyoko into custody of Todou Juku. Let them deal with the brat, hell it might do her some good. The Emperor team leader eyed Nicolas as he shuffled slightly to the side, allowing her more space. Might do him some good too.

Kyouichi was not going to think about Seiji and Miyoko. That could wait. A long time.

Miyoko wasn't the only departing member in the last few months either, Satake, one of the oldest and… well oldest really… members of the team had also been removed from the roster. With much more force.

"I'm interested Sainz-san. Why did you have the turbocharger removed and replaced with a supercharger? Won't that produce less horsepower?" The question was valid, for someone of Miyoko's level… younger drivers did tend to pursue horsepower somewhat narrow-mindedly. But even so Kyouichi was interested to see how Sainz would answer the question. He wasn't the most notorious people-person in the world.

"From what Sakai and Kyouichi tell me, you were once a member of Evo Prime; Happogahara's home team. You should know well enough then that the top end performance of a sizable turbo becomes a disadvantage on a tight and treacherous course, short of installing a rally anti-lag system there is really no way to combat that. A supercharger provides steady response and better bottom-end torque than the turbo, meaning that the ability to take and exit corners improves. With Kai's level of driving, on most of the courses in the area, a supercharger is a definite advantage. On Happogahara, if you haven't felt the disadvantages of a turbo car, then you obviously haven't reached a high level of skill." Ouch.

Kyouichi was torn between smirking at finally seeing the Princess Ieyasu put in her place and quietly moving out of the soon to be warzone. No one talked to Miyoko like that without some form of retribution. Not even Seiji. Especially not Seiji, Kyouichi mused.

A diffusing chuckle echoed through the workshop as the mop of hair attached to Sakai appeared from underneath the car.

"Trust Sainz-san to have high expectations of the current students… he knows firsthand the level of driver that the school is capable of producing. You and Daiki are lucky to have the skills of a World Rally Championship competitor to learn from!"

His voice was perfectly modulated for a genuine expression of awe and it certainly stole some of the thunder from Miyoko's expression as she was reminded of just how much she stood to learn with her new team. Sakai was a born diplomat. Clever little bugger too.

It had been Sakai that had put all the pieces together after all.

News of Kai's accident had travelled fast to the other teams and it had been sitting at the carpark of the Todou Firm two weeks after the event that Sakai had taken the pieces of information everyone had seen and heard and painted them into a picture that even a racer could understand.

_"Ohna Takuya says that, from their description, the white Evo 5 and 6 sound like the REVS team from Tsuchisaka."_

_"An Evo 6? It's definitely not on of Emperor's members then, there hasn't been an Evo 6 on our team since that arrogant bastard Hiro, the Evo 5 though is common enough around these parts."_

_"Ryosuke just confirmed it, the leader of the REVS team has to be Kanamaeda Hiroki… his appearance and car match the description I gave him and his dirty tactics gave him away in the Project D race."_

_"But what motive would he have to go after Kai or Takeshi, neither of them have raced him and from what Ohna tells me they wouldn't have had anything strong enough to come after him over."_

_"Perhaps then."_

_"Perhaps then it had nothing to do with Five Fire Flame at all. Sudou-san tells us that both the oil and the Evo 6 are trademarks of this Kanamaeda character. We also know that he was at one stage an Emperor driver. Rather than involving Kogashiwa's team, it seems more likely that the motive for the attack was aimed at Emperor itself."_

_"Why not before now? It has been years since he left."_

_"I wondered at that too Sudou-san. Perhaps, rather than acting immediately for personal revenge they did so at someone's insistence. Perhaps someone that knew them. Someone with a grudge for Emperor that could not actually do the deed themselves. It would have probably been someone that knows the Emperor routine well. They couldn't have poured the oil if every team member was going to hit it. The smartest thing to do was remember the routine for that night and see if anyone held a grudge with those people."_

_"A grudge? The only people who have reason to dislike each other are Emperor members, thanks to Seiji"_

_A date, a kick… countless snide comments and arguments._

_"Satake."_

_"Satake. He has reason to hate Miyoko-chan for what happened before the race on Usui and he has the connection to Kanamaeda as he is an original Emperor member."_

_"Seiji!"_

_"Sainz-san!"_

That had been the start of one of the most conflict filled periods in history for the racers of Tochigi. Nicolas Sainz had all but disappeared, rumour had him popping up all over the place. Word spread about his attack on the Tsuchisaka pass, destroying the REVS team and the course record, set years ago by Project D. He had also appeared on Usui and Happogahara again smashing the course records with little trouble. Then as quickly as he has appeared he was gone again.

Seiji had also been rather active. With his fists mostly, but surprisingly it had also been Seiji talking to Kogashiwa the most… even driving him to the wrecking yard to inspect his car after the accident. That had started his whole problem. Kai and Miyoko did not get along. In fact they were one step off loathing each other.

Poor Seiji. He finally does something nice and it bites him in the behind.

"Sakai, did you check the settings on the shocks? And the gearbox and diff oil?"

The new Todou graduate nodded politely. It was incredible how oiled the machine of the Todou Firm was. With a slight smile, he turned his back on the three younger drivers and hit the speed dial on his mobile phone. Making sure he was out of earshot he passed tonight's information on to a colleague. This was going to be a rare treat all in all, and Enna was certainly going to be crowded. Jin and Alex were already there amusing themselves and the locals with their antics and Five Fire Flame were confirmed.

Among others.

"Kai is on his way, the shakedown begins tonight on Enna. We'll both drive it and see where it can be improved. Who knows," Nicolas made a slight motion with his head. "We might even see Kogashiwa battle again."

* * *

Kogashiwa Kai watched as his new car launched to attack the downhill in the capable hands of Nicolas Sainz. His skill showed as he slotted through the gears on the initial straight. Even so, a WRC driver couldn't overcome to excitement burning through every pore of his body. This new car was vicious… amazing on so many levels! 

Kai's father Ken had incredible aptitude in setting up a car's suspension but never before had the SW20 been so agile, the steering as responsive. The car would move almost perfectly as Kai put it through it's paces. And the traction was just superb! The tires would push the car forward almost immediately when the accelerator was depressed.

That was just the suspension set-up! The new power output was slightly more than it had been as a turbo and the bottom end torque was insane, maybe even equal to the corner exit of a 4WD LanEvo. There was only one way to find out. He turned to Rina, slinging his arm around her with a smile. She held a walkie-talkie in her hands, keeping her in contact with both Dysuke and Takuya.

Those two! Whatever tension had marred the friendship between himself and their resident drifter of the team and dissolved with the crash.When Kai had been released from medical care they had embraced as brothers. Takuya… boy that guy was an genius, not only was he a great racer, but it was Takuya that had gone Nicolas to Tsuchisaka, and it was Takuya that had begun the united project to rebuild the MR2.

This was his team, his family, his people, even that brooding gaijin and he wasn't going to let them down again. Just as his mind threatened to take him away on a ride a garbled voice shot through the radio and brought him back to earth.

"Wow, I can't believe the cornering speed of the SW… if he keeps this pace up, he might even beat Tomo-san's downhill record."

"Kai, you there? Sainz is taking a similar line to your's, but his reactions are much quicker… I think you've got the hang of the car and by the look on everyone's face I think you might be able to steal a quick battle tonight!"

"This is the finish-line, Sainz didn't beat the course record but he came less than a second from it! That's on his first run! He's heading back up at a slower pace, but the galleries are cheering for more action!"

Rina had to move the radio away from her and Kai's nuzzled heads as a high-pitched cheer came over the airwaves along with shouting. Damn Speedstars. Kai almost wished Rina wasn't related to Mako. The Usui racer had almost, sort of, had a thing with their new Spanish ace, there were plenty of juicy rumours spread about them, but once the SW20 went into the Todou Firm he focused solely on that, and she had later been spotted with some Speedstar guy.

Well, them's the brakes.

Kai smiled as his, HIS, not his father's SW20 appeared at a relaxed pace, the new carbon aero parts making the car that much more graceful. Nothing could dampen his mood tonight. Not a damn thing. He had his car, his friends, his justice over those Evo driving bastards and a mountain full of people with their attention directed solely at him!

As Nicolas exited the car Kai noticed a small smile playing around his face as he habitually tugged on his ponytail. He handed the keys to Kai and nodded his head slightly in satisfaction.

"It's a good car Kogashiwa, I'll have to tweak the suspension a bit more… but overall... it's great. What you need is a tough test to completely get the new characteristics burned in your head. A run with Takuya or even a battle with one of the Todou Juku members."

Almost immediately Kai's eyebrow rose and his eyes shot across the gallery to one of the current students. Before his accident it would have been a bitter look, sinister almost… but now it was just amused and confident. Rina and Sainz both noticed the look and at least one of them couldn't repress a chuckle.

"I'll go organise it. Rina, pass word down to the spotters on the corners. Tell them that there's going to be a realrace tonight."

* * *

The pair stood slightly removed from the rest of the gathered spectators, experience and skill separating them. When it came to racing on the streets, these where the young lords of the mountains, almost insurmountable in every aspect. 

"Did you see his driving? Perfect braking control, textbook line taking and supreme chassis control. "

"And yet so apathetic, his driving style has regressed, he lacks motivation."

"And can we do anything about that?"

"Perhaps we can, Kyouichi. Perhaps we can."

* * *

_I love reviews, but as always... something with thought means one thousand times some fairy uniform praise._


	17. Welcome to the Occupation

I'm back, and we're almost done here. I made sure I'd get at least one chapter up for Chish while she was on holidays relaxing.

Enjoy and review...

_

* * *

_

**Welcome to the Occupation.**

_He really is incredible._

_Sainz-san that is._

_Within seconds he had my race organised with Ieyasu. For a supposed outsider he carries a lot of respect and command everywhere he goes. Takuya had told me that he'd once driven in the WRC and after hearing some of the times he was capable of producing on local passes I had to believe him. He really was what every racer strove to be, what they all wanted from life. Then why did he always seem miserable? Could it be to do with Mako-chan, or was it something other than that? Even when I first met him, and looking back now, I have to smile at what was said, he seemed detached from his surroundings. It'd have to be hard though, going from a professional racer to a university student in the space of a few years. He probably didn't have all the many friends either; we can tend to be a little less than open and forthcoming to gaijin. Well, he's a member of our team now and to be honest there are few people I owe more to. He rebuilt my car, the WHOLE car almost from the ground up and didn't think once about getting paid to do so. Takuya told me that much._

_He did it, one racer to another and for that I owe him._

Both cars charged downhill quickly, the Evo VII leading the SW20 bumper to bumper. It was the predictable start to the race. The tires on Kai's SW20 had already been heated in the previous time attacks and were gummed up because of it. Also Miyoko's Evo VII had the advantage of more traction at launch and corner exit and her Active Yaw Control and Active Centre Diff allowed an easy but incredibly fast turn in. But those were minor details… inconsequential really. Kai knew that all he had to do was cling to the back of the car during the high-speed sections and towards the end of the course Miyoko would leave an opening somewhere. She wasn't that good yet. The pair attacked one of the high-speed corners Enna was famous for and it difference in styles was obvious to note. Miyoko braked conservatively and downshifted two gears, utilising her tires and electronic aids to turn the car and then bringing the gas back on strongly at the clipping point. Her technique made the car drift outwards slightly, exciting to watch, but wasteful on her tires. Kai, by contrast, used his brake pedal sparingly, downshifted but a single gear and only stepped back on his gas pedal when he was certain it wouldn't disrupt his forward momentum with a loss of traction. Even for those people in the galleries it was obvious that Kogashiwa Kai was not only cornering faster, he doing so without placing as much strain on his tires. Thanks to Dysuke's experience he knew firsthand the strengths and weaknesses of the drift style.

_Dysuke. I thought I hated him when the team started, or maybe that he hated me, but now? He really is alright. I know there's something between him and Rina, or there was. Unspoken feelings, childhood crushes…_

_Dysuke was good friends with Rina's older brother Ken… it makes sense there'd be something there. God, what did it take for me to fall for Rina? One date, one smile? I can't really blame him. Mainly because he didn't blame me. It must have taken a lot of guts to walk into my hospital room by himself and just sit down and talk. Talk about the team, about my car… talk about Rina and how worried she was._

_About how much she loved me._

_Somewhere along the line I started asking him questions about himself. How he'd met Takuya at a track day, and how deep down he really respected the ace. How he sold the engine from his Altezza and replaced it with a new one. We talked about that in relative depth. A 1U was an odd engine to fit into an Altezza after all but as Dysuke explained it was a lighter engine than the 3S and it made more power from an ultra-responsive quad cam four litre V8. The car could now had improved performance on the corners and on the straights with nearly 400 horsepower._

_If nothing else, Rina liked the car even more now. She said it sounded much better._

Miyoko was trying to spread the gap between her and Kai's cars with very little luck. Sure, her driving was becoming more aggressive certainly, but as with most amateurs she didn't know yet that more aggressive didn't always mean faster. Her turning was becoming more haphazard, the tires slipping on the bitumen and she was starting to miss the clipping point for the corner, leaving a pin-point opening. Still it was going to be hard to get in front of her… even with a supercharger she still had enough of an acceleration advantage to stop any overtaking attempt on the straights. And unlike Irohazaka, there weren't any stunts that could be pulled for an unbeatable counter-attack. Kai was going to have to do this one the old-fashioned way.

The Kogashiwa way.

In other words; the unspeakably insane way.

Winding through a high-speed back and forth section Kai began to move closer to the guardrails and mountainsides, startling people in the galleries and the young woman in front of him. He was staying on her tail longer on the straights now and pushing his nose into any hole she opened up in her defences. She was panicking, there was blood in the water, and Kogashiwa knew it. It wasn't the clean way to win, the style Takuya would prefer, but against a 4WD LanEvo, you have to do what you can.

_Takuya. Boy was he old school. He has got to be without a doubt the best technical racer in Five Fire Flame, wait, second now! He measures his braking in fractions of a second and moves that little Starlet around Happogahara faster than anyone would ever believe possible. Hell he'd beaten Evo Prime times! Not only that but he was a good, no a natural leader, he can harass Rina into driving seriously and improving her split times again and again and again on any given night. He can give Dysuke the technical driving expertise he needs whilst moving from his instincts with his drifting days to his new career as a touge racer. And as much as I hate to admit it, if he's not faster than me, he's damn close. He's also able to hold a conversation with Sainz-san as an equal, whether it's about racing or mechanics or about running a team. Sainz seems to respect his decisions and the fact that they are well thought out._

_Really that is Takuya's weapon, not any freakish skill, though he has more than ample skill. It's not the fact that he's a genius like that Takahashi guy from Project D, though he's definitely smart. Takuya's best weapon is the fact that he thinks every thing through to its conclusion; that he's able to make plans that just seem to come together perfectly, with everything in it's place._

_He's an evil genius, really!_

The Evo's pace had decreased in the corners and it was now suffering from serious understeer. The supercharged SW20 was stalking her like a predator running down a wounded herd animal. Looking for one last opening to go for the throat.

From their position overlooking the last turns of the course the Todou Juku elite were the first to see them approach, interrupting the conversation two of their members were holding, whilst the others listened on.

"But Sakai… Sainz-san booked a race that wasn't fair! Miyoko might be a Todou student but she's only been with the school a few weeks. I mean, unless she tries another crazy Fujiwara move, he's going to be faster, even Shacho said so!"

The older graduate was without his customary smile.

"Remember what Shacho said Daiki. Sometimes you learn more from a loss than you do from a win. And sometimes you need to win to build your confidence. That would be my guess…"

There was the telltale sound of a wastegate venting excess boost and the words were silenced. The Evo 7 exited the corner, almost clipping the guardrail before Miyoko caught it, with the SW20 right behind it. She was swerving slightly back and forth, trying to prevent Kai taking the inside line for the approaching corner. Smiling to himself, Kai feinted to the outside and as she moved to block, set himself up to take the inside anyway.

Sweating rivers down her forehead the Ieyasu scion moved to cut Kai off in the corner, setting up for a tight line. The race was nearly hers, only two more corners to go! She'd show that Kogashiwa her skills, **and** Seiji, **and** Kyouichi! All of them!

Completely unfazed Kogashiwa moved his MR2 up the inside to Miyoko's horror.

"Don't come any closer you idiot, there's no space!"

Apparently no one told the Tochigi racer that. Before he was racing cars, he was racing motorbikes, and it gave him one distinct advantage over most people.

He understood the proper dynamics of jumping.

Fearlessly he struck the curled lip of the gutter timing the action so that instead of snapping his wheels first the front and then the rear leapt over it and ran through the dirt shoulder. Landing the car on the road, Kai was almost a car length in front of Miyoko, while the Todou members looked on and provided split-second commentary.

"Did you see that? Kogashiwa pulled off a flawless gutter jump!

"He's holding his lead on the straight!"

"It's going to be a braking duel!"

In their cabins Ieyasu Miyoko and Kogashiwa Kai locked into a silent battle of wills. Each leaving their braking as late as possible, leaving it until both wondered if they'd survive the corner. Biting down on her lips hard, Miyoko cracked first, slamming her brakes on and hoping that the ABS and AYC would help her turn the corner.

Kogashiwa was definitely better with that pedal. He edged forward before pulling of yet another gutter jump, this one spraying Miyoko's LanEvo with dirt and grass. He had the lead.

He had the win.

The galleries erupted and Kogashiwa Kai contemplated the last member of his team.

_Satou Rina. That woman, I love that woman._

_This is my team. And I wouldn't change any of them for the world!_

* * *

Nicolas Sainz stared at the object in his hands with slight confusion as Sakai and Todou-san crowded around with playful smiles and banter. 

His thoughts immediately turned Mako, and then, almost unwillingly to Miyoko. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. One he had almost… almost allowed himself to think about in kind terms. But that was before she got back together with that boyfriend of hers.

The other drove him up the wall, around the ceiling and out the door.

Avoiding the gentle nudge in the ribs, Nicolas spun the item round in his hands, even allowing Sakai to peel of the small note that accompanied it.

Although he wanted to retreat into his own little cocoon, he had to allow for his employer and co-worker's jovial moods.

After all it wasn't every day that a mechanic at the Todou Firm was sent a dozen red roses.

"Sainz-san… you'd better read this!"


	18. The End is the begining is the end

**The End...**

**Is the begining**

"GO!"

The tortured sounds of tires scrapping for every ounce of grip on the asphalt destroyed the hushed silence on the peak of Mt Akina. There were screams and wolf-whistles as the distinct yellow of the Five Fire Flame GT Four pulled away from his opponent and shamed the white car in the starting dash. Despite the power and acceleration of the GT Four, the locals seemed very confident in the driver of that white car, underpowered, outdated and rear wheel drive. The driver of that car specialised in the come from behind victory.

Kogashiwa Kai shared their confidence, if not their allegiance.

He knew of course firsthand the skill of the Gunma racers, had seen them adapt to a foreign course and beat the best of the locals using their own tricks. He silently winced remembering that detail. But this was completely different; this wasn't two amateurs racing each other. This was one world class professional driver running at his best and not a single amateur racer in the world could derail a WRC competitor when their blood was burning with a battling spirit and their technique was overwhelming in every aspect.

Not even him.

_"I don't know why I've been challenged to a street race on Akina, of all places, Kai; but let me tell you something. I'm not going to hold back, not one little bit. Since I came back to Japan, I've driven with Sudou-san and Mako and Sayuki's SilEighty and both times I only showed a fraction of the driving I'm capable of. Tonight I'm going to go all out and show everyone watching what a pro rallyist can do. No strategy, none of my tricks from Todou Juku… I'm going to bury them under the best driving they've ever seen!"_

Kai smiled to himself as the taillights disappeared into the inky dark. Some much for Gunma's street king then… he didn't stand a chance. Tonight's race was going to go down in the annuals of the mountains and it was going to make the name of Five Fire Flame.

* * *

Nicolas Sainz was in fifth gear, foot buried to the floor as the first hairpin quickly loomed. Rather than approaching on the outside like on a racetrack, the technical shortest line, he hugged the inside lane tightly. He braked, using the weight shift to initiate a drift in the opposite direction to the corner; startling the galleries and making people scramble for cover as the Celica veered towards the guardrail at seemingly terminal speed. As he did this, he downshifted into second and flicked his car into the corner, applying the accelerator for the first time in the whole procedure to hold his drift and blast through the corner with ease. 

Thoroughly shocked faces stared at each other in utter disbelief… desperately seeking confirmation that their eyes had not lied to them.

"Di…did you see that!"

"He drifted the car without touching the gas!"

"He just used momentum from the straightaway to do a feint drift!"

"Unbelievable, simply unbelievable!"

The white car followed behind, fast, but simply not in the same league while the road was relatively level. To even begin to come close to a high-powered 4WD car it would need to be charging down a steeper mountain slope than this… and maybe pull a rabbit out of a hat somewhere along the line. Or a dragon… that would be better.

In his cabin Nicolas was able to shut out all worldly and internal distractions and run using his finely honed instincts and technique.

"This is an unbelievable course. Even on the straights I can feel the tires wanting to lose traction, this is really quite terrifying. It's been so long since I've pushed a car this hard, I've got to keep my concentration on the road ahead at all times or I really will die this time. But if anyone thinks that will stop me, they're wrong, I'm going to keep pushing and pushing until the bottom of the mountain. The worse the tires get, the more I'm going to attack the corners… I'll show everyone what I'm capable of." The Spaniard sliced through the GT Four's close ratio gears seamlessly, arms and feat almost becoming an incoherent blur on the wheel and pedals as his Celica danced through a left-hand sweeper bend and then attacked a right hand corner in third.

"I'll show you _abuelo_, I am your grandson and I'll prove it!"

He stole a glance upwards to his rear-view mirror, remembering for the first time that this was a two-person race. Before his attention was diverted back by the next bend in the road, Sainz could almost have sworn that he had seen headlights. No way, must have been a reflection.

* * *

Sudou Kyouichi stood at the entrance to the infamous five consecutive hairpins, as good a vantage point for this race as any… but only because he himself had no idea what was going to happen. He had so much respect for the driving ability of both racers and it was almost unthinkable to believe that either of them would lose. Normally Kyouichi would have backed the better car, the GT Four, but his own experience told him that, on this course, even a 4WD was fallible if the driver didn't manage the tires perfectly. If the front tires started to lose traction the car wouldn't turn in as quickly and an FR car could attack it in the entrance of the corner. Even saying that though, Sainz was a professional, his cornering should be first rate and he was a master of car control… no one would bet against him. But that guy… that guy always seemed to win when the odds were massively stacked against him. 

He'd beaten the combination of 4WD and misfiring system before… could he do it again?

If not, no one else in Gunma could… he was the White Comet of Akagi, the godfather of the streets.

There was no mistaking it, they were headlights and they were getting closer, Nicolas refused to give into frustration… there was always a logical explanation. The car must have been tuned with more power than it originally seemed to make such headway on the middle high speed section.

"There is no way that FC has less power than my GT Four, because there is no way in hell that he's out cornering me!" Nicolas knew there were a handful of back to back hairpin corners coming up, he'd reopen the gap there, even on scalding tires he knew how to get through them faster than any amateur, veteran or not. Stepping on the brakes at the last possible minute and holding them to trail-brake into the first corner, keeping the weight over the front tires to aid turning as the car began to skate. The mountain pass was filled with the machinegun backfire of the Celica's misfiring system and then it exited in a flash of yellow thundering steel.

Kyouichi watched as his former Todou Juku classmate cornered with all the grace and skill of his prestigious grandfather, Carlos Sainz. The FC was seconds behind… seconds? In both of their races, Ryousuke had never been more than a car length behind Kyouichi, stalking him, waiting for any opening to exploit; Nicolas had him struggling to keep up. The FC finally appeared, charging down the corner as only the White Comet of Akagi could. Kyouichi waited for the inevitable braking… and waited… and waited.

"Are you insane Takahashi? There's no way your car will turn at that speed! Slow down before you kill yourself! Slow down!" Obviously oblivious to Kyouichi's concern, though it would never be voiced again, the FC damned the entire scrambling, screaming gallery and moved for the corner. There was a sound like gunshot, and the FC was gone.

Kyouichi couldn't believe his eyes, he was no newcomer to racing, but he had just seen something his mind could not comprehend. The FC had just exceeded the turning ability of it's tires, and yet had just taken the corner as though it was on rails. It didn't make sense… and what was that noise just before Ryousuke entered? Kyouichi stared at the hairpin in a daze… wondering how a retired Takahashi had once again upstaged him in driving skill. Rushing to catch a glimpse of the FC on the following corner, Kyouichi ran to the opposite side of the road, cursing silently as his new shoes came into contact with some spongy leaf litter, still wet from recent rain and lying discarded in the gentle gutter.

Gutter? No way!

Kyouichi smiled, years of unsolved mysteries fitting into place like a perfect key.

But would it be enough?

* * *

Nicolas pulled the handbrake quickly, adjusting the angle of his drift mid-corner to compensate for his baked tires. It stood as testament to his ability that he was able keep his car on the road at all, least of all at the incredible pace he had. But it just wasn't enough, not for Nicolas Sainz. Each corner, the FC was nipping a little into his lead, somehow using it's tires in a way that even the 4WD Celica GT Four could not. It wasn't the power difference at all; there was a cornering difference! Damn it! There was no way Nicolas could have known to bother with high performance tires, up to the job of holding a longer more intense race. There was no way he was going to have taken a street race seriously. 

"Even if you've got some cornering method to catch me, some cheat, there's no way you can overtake me with our difference in exit acceleration, and in the next straight the FC will soon disappear." It wasn't what the Todou graduate originally had imagined, but it would suffice. "In professional racing, a win is a win, no matter where it's made."

Nicolas gritted his teeth as he depressed the accelerator with pinpoint precision, making the necessary counter steering as his car slid just a little too far. The FC was right on his tail at exit, but it soon fell prey to the higher-powered Celica. From high on the galleries a group of racers watched on in amazement as both the Celica and FC passed them within heartbeats of each other. One of them, a local team leader was overcome by the enormity of both drivers skill.

"Unbelievable… look at the speed of the GT Four, see that crazy acceleration at exit! There's no way that Takahashi Ryousuke can overcome this guy, so late in the race." Standing at his side, close enough to leave no one with any illusions to the state of their relationship, was the ever-beautiful Satou Mako. She, being of much greater skill than her companion, saw something much different. The FC was entering the corners much faster and without any understeer. The Celica was understeering and was sliding the car to compensate; it's tires were worn to slicks, even with only a few corners left it was going to be very hard for Sainz-kun to come away with a victory against such a deadly opponent.

"I'm not so sure…"

It was hard for Mako to watch Ryousuke and Nicolas race… it was almost like seeing two different stages of her life and heart. There were barely hours that she had snatched between the two, but they had both had a impact on her life and her racing. As she felt an arm slip around her for support she scrunched her lovely face into a tight mask of worry. If someone had to lose tonight, she prayed it wouldn't be Nicolas… she doubted he was ready for the shock of it. He needed some kind of fulfilment.

Beside them, a much more provocatively dressed young woman nodded in Mako's direction.

"No, this race isn't over. The Celica is moving fast, even with overheated tires but Takahashi Ryousuke is taking the better line… the same line as Akina's 86 did during it's races. He knows that there is still a small chance for a counter-attack. Only the final corners will settle this race."

* * *

"It's getting harder to control the car… the tires are nearly about to delaminate, but you're still mine Takahashi Ryousuke. There's nowhere that you can attack me… the 4WD layout gives superior traction, even in the latter stages of the race, and the misfiring system gives instant response and acceleration. The same layout as a real WRC machine." 

Swinging the car back and forth with another feint drift, keeping the car on line through sheer power of will and raw automotive ability, Nicolas allowed himself to relax slightly. Two more corners and the race was over. Victory was his; one hundred and ten percent!

"Tomo-san, I don't understand why we are watching from the final corner. All we will get to see is a huge gap between the GT Four and the FC… we should have went to the five consecutive hairpins. That is were the most exciting parts of the battles have been in previous Akina races." Todou Juku was, as usual for them, out en masse to witness the driving of one of the school's graduates… even if he wasn't aware of it. Another act of some frequency was occurring… the strong, and most often loud, opinions of Ieyasu Miyoko, the school's newest student.

Before then, Tachi Tomoyuki, Tomo, had originally found her quite charming…

"Not in this battle Miyoko. With Akina's combination of short straightaways and straightforward hairpin corners, there is very little chance for the runner to leave the pursuer. The chasing car is able to steal the rhythm and line from the runner and see all the details of his driving, from acceleration to cornering technique. This corner is the best corner to attack the leading car. There is a high-speed entry and the corner has three lanes, so there is plenty of room to choose a good cornering line. Furthermore, 4WD and FR cars take different corning approaches to achieve their highest rate of speed possible so that will open pinpoint overlaps for the following car to drive through. Lastly are the tires…"

Tomo trailed off, allowing the three younger Todou associates, Daiki, Sakai and Miyoko, to formulate their own reasoning and answer him. It was clear by that confident and somewhat creepy smile, Sakai had figured it out, but was going to leave the answer to sit in the minds of the current students.

_'The front tires of FF and 4WD layout cars experience more pressure on them, because they are used for both acceleration and turning. Also, FF and 4WD rely on the grip of those tires to turn in… unlike an FR. Even with worn tires an FR can turn in by generating oversteer at the corner entry. If Sainz has rushed his race to get clear of the chasing FC then his turn in will be slowed, even if he is drifting his car in response. That is the only weakness in the 4WD layout… they rely too heavily on those front tires. Sainz has competed at professional level on national and international level briefly… logic should dictate that a pro driver will defeat an amateur regardless of those conditions._

However.

_'This is Takahashi Ryousuke, the man that trained Fujiwara Takumi and Takahashi Keisuke, two successful pro racers in their own right. This was the leader of Project D._

_He's beaten us before.'_

There was a mingled symphony of a rotary engine and the systematic explosions of the misfiring system and suddenly four pop-up headlights appeared. The FC was locked on to the tail of the FC as they attacked the second last corner of Akina's downhill. The effect upon the Todou members was electric, the students… even Sakai, one of the schools best, were clearly shocked.

Tomo smiled ruefully.

_'Sorry Sainz-kun…I guess tonight, the goddess of racing just wasn't with you.'_

* * *

Coming up the inside of the corner much faster than the Celica, the FC held the tight line inside and closed on the GT Four… quickly. Vision tunnelling ahead, using every ounce of coordination to hold the line, Nicolas Sainz, undefeated since his return to Japan, Yellow Thunder, was unaware that he no longer had a tailing car. With the instinct born from routine, he exited and quickly glanced up, expecting to once again widen the gap between the two cars. He saw only the utter darkness of a mountain pass at night. 

His eyes bugged and, in disbelief, he shot a look over his shoulder, to the inside. He payed for his mistake with a brief slide that he quickly corrected.

_That bastard!_

Even with the better acceleration, the FC stayed level on the straight.

Gritting his teeth until his jaw ached Nicolas Sainz, the scion of the Sainz family legacy, took Takahashi Ryousuke to a braking duel and won it, but in winning it, played into a more complex battle for the best cornering line. Sensing his folly, Nicolas attempted to use his left-foot braking to turn his Celica in to the corner. Quickly enough the understeer slide became a full throttle drift through the corner, leaving the barest of openings right before the finish.

The barest of openings was all it took.

In a flash of white the White Comet came from outside to in… taking the lead and crossing the finish line.

He made it seem so easy.

In the cabin of the Celica Nicolas Sainz expelled the breath he wasn't aware he had kept until he felt the ache in his chest.

He'd lost?

He'd lost…

Almost unaware of his actions he pulled over and lent his head against the steering wheel. After all this time, all the training and professional driving and still, on a backwater road in the middle of nowhere in Japan, a driver that never came close to going pro humbled him.

_Sometimes in life Sainz-kun, just like in life, you hit walls. Every time you climb over one of those walls you get a little stronger, a little faster. When you reach a wall you can't climb over, most of the time, that means you've reached your limit. Sometimes though, if you're stubborn enough, and strong enough and lucky enough… something unexpected can knock that wall down. That's why you never give up Sainz-kun, not as long as you're alive._

Inside the Celica Nicolas felt the tension leave his body. He was still young, and he still had a lot to learn about racing.

Nicolas Sainz had lost.

For the first time in years, he gave the world a genuine smile.

**IS THE END.**

* * *

_It's all over... done done done._

_I'd like to dedicate this crappy story to a few people... firstly of course is BoomChish; you're a good freind, and there is no way I'd have bothered finishing this if not for you. It's funny that an Evo 4's AYC got us talking a year ago, and know there are few people whom I enjoy talking to more. Thanks for all your help._

_Secondly, I'd like to thank the fanbrats that can barely write, know nothing of cars, touge or racing or THE CHARACTERSand yet churn out fics at a staggering rate... all of which hurt a normal person's brain to read. Research people, if you get nothing else right in the whole story... at least know the difference between a 13B-REW and a 4G63...between racing that requires huge turbos and displacement increases and racing that requires response andwhy peoplecan't create cars that don't exist, and couldn't exist without a fortune's worth of work, NA Evo's, F1 engined FC's... things like that._

_Actually that's the worst, pretending to know what you're talking about... for shame._

_I miss inky, she knew a catalitic convertor from a radiator cap._

_Yeash... anyways, from here on in, I'm open to projects and suggestions that take my fancy... otherwise, well..._

_See you and goodbye._


End file.
